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Introduction
Rev 5.0b, January 2002
Copyright 1995-2002, by Kara Longo and Alan Rowoth. Visit folkmusic's home site, folkmusic.org, at http://www.folkmusic.org
DISCLAIMER:
This Is A FAQ FileFAQ is an acronym for "Frequently Asked Questions." Its intent is to describe the folkmusic mailing list and what is discussed there, to provide a jumping-off point for further investigation, and to answer questions that most new readers will have.
THE BASICS
folkmusic@grassyhill.org
New American Folk Music discussion Listfolkmusic is a moderated discussion list dealing with the music of the recent wave of American singer/songwriters. List traffic consists of discussion, reviews, album release info and other information on artists like Shawn Colvin, Mary Chapin Carpenter, David Wilcox, Nanci Griffith, Christine Lavin, The Bixbys, Dee Carstensen, Dar Williams, Richard Shindell, Cosy Sheridan, Hamell On Trial, Susan Werner, Dave Nachmanoff, Buddy Mondlock, and others of their ilk. Membership to this discussion list is free of charge and open to all interested individuals or organizations. The list began in 1991, most of those posts are not currently available online, but we have been archiving list postings since May of 1999 at http://www.escribe.com/music/folkmusic
Subscription Instructions
Note that the name of this list no longer contains an underscore. We used to be folk_music, we are now folkmusic. Check your web links, many pages linked to us, some of those links may not have been updated.
All list subs, unsubs, digest/nodigest/nomail options are now set via a web interface.
To post a message to the group send it to:
Help All other questions, requests for information, etc., should be sent to the moderator at alan@folkmusic.org. The list moderator is Alan Rowoth.
What is a Mailing List?folkmusic is a list of email addresses maintained with a "list server software. Each address on the list receives a copy of each message sent to the list. folkmusic is a moderated list. This means that a human being, the moderator or an assistant, reads each message and forwards appropriate ones to the list. Postings which don't follow the list posting guidelines will be rejected with an explanation notice, except for obvious SPAM which will just be discarded.
For more about mailing lists and how to use them, visit Liszt at http://www.liszt.com Liszt is a searchable database of thousands of mailing lists from all over the world. It includes lots of easy-to-use features and information for people who are very new to the use of mailing lists.
FREQUENTLY ASKED
QUESTIONS
What is the difference between digest and single messages?Many people prefer to subscribe to this list in "digest" form. This means that all of a day's messages are combined in a single email message with a table of contents. Due to network traffic and other factors, digests aren't received at the same time each day or even at the same time by all subscribers. It's not unusual for digest posts to be separated by more than or less than 24 hours. Occasionally, two digests may arrive on the same day. Be sure to subscribe to the folkmusic digest if this is your preference. What if I change my mind?
All list subs, unsubs, digest/nodigest/nomail options are now set via a web interface.
How do I change my address?
All list subs, unsubs, digest/nodigest/nomail options are now set via a web interface. We want you to stay around, but if you know you will lose access to your account, or if you no longer wish to be on the list, please do unsubscribe. If you have trouble with any of this, please send a note to the folkmusic moderator, Alan Rowoth, at alan@folkmusic.org and he'll try to help.
How do I set the list to NOMAIL when I'm going to be away?All list subs, unsubs, digest/nodigest/nomail options are now set via a web interface. Set your browser to http://grassyhill.org/mailman/listinfo/folkmusic Since the list is fully moderated, you are not required to be a member of the list to post a message to it.
Okay, so I have a subscription? Now what?
Lurking"Lurking" is slang for reading without posting. There's nothing wrong with it, especially when you're new to an email list. It's a good way to get a feel for the kinds of concrete information that readers are expecting to see. You're never required to post to an email list to be a welcome member of the group.
IntroductionsBecause folkmusic has hundreds of subscribers on several continents (more than many lists you may have already seen,) we don't generally ask new subscribers to introduce themselves. You're welcome to, though, and we're especially interested to know that you're here and how you fit into the music community if you're a working performer, agent, promoter, venue operator, deejay, student activities person, or work in a music-related field. Some of the most interesting information on folkmusic comes from performers and other professionals who generously share their unique perspectives and watch to see what interests readers.
What happens when I post?There are several possibilities. This is a moderated list, that means each message is read by a person who can choose whether or not to send it on to the general readership. Things that may happen to your post:
Because the list is hand moderated and the listserv software only runs at certain times each day, distribution to the list can take hours or even a couple of days. Couple that with the knowledge that many people only check their mail once every day or so, and you'll see that time sensitive information should be posted well in advance. Posting with 72 to 96 hours of lead time is probably the best insurance that your message will reach list members in time for action. To whom should I respond?The original writer of the message that interested you is often the best choice. If your response is of general interest to most readers, it's appropriate to reply to the list.
So what is "On Topic?"The best way to get a feel for that is to read for a while and see what's going on. On-topic discussion includes:
There is never a clear definition of what fits; for example, you'll often see discussion of a figures like June Tabor or Richard Thompson, who aren't known for their writing or their North Americanness or their newness on the scene, but they've had a lasting effect on American musicians. Generally, we discuss performers who are nationally or regionally popular in North America, and we give much notice to newer, up-and-coming figures. Performers who aren't touring at least regionally would best be discussed in local community forums, not on folkmusic. We're most interested in performers whose concerts can be seen by, and whose recordings can be bought by a large number of readers. Your best bet is to lurk for a while to get a feel for what everyone is discussing. I get it. I think I'm ready to post.Your message is especially welcome if it's on-topic and follows a few practices that make it easy for a large number of people to handle quickly. We're a huge group of people, and few of us carefully read each message. Many of us also must pay for each email message we receive, and for the connect time and phone usage it takes to read them, so it's a matter of courtesy to keep things manageable. These are good rules of thumb:Use a brief, descriptive subject line, and include dates and locations wherever possible, such as "REVIEW: Jim's Big Ego at Passim" Subject lines like "Hey, Check it out" or "FOLKMUSIC DIGEST #455" don't let the recipient know what to expect. If your message asks for information, your subject line should end with a question mark. Keep in mind that most people don't read email messages if they're more than a few screens in length. Do you really want to include all those lines? Break for paragraphs every 4 or 5 lines, even if it doesn't make sense rhetorically. Short paragraphs are easier to read on computer screens than long ones. And stay away from that caps lock key, PEOPLE INTERPRET ALL CAPS AS SHOUTING. It can be confusing when people refer to their favorite performers solely by their first names. (Does "Chapin" refer to Tom or Harry or Mary? Who is this Iris that I've never heard of in my country? Isn't Nanci that old American comic strip? Who the heck is this Shawn guy?) Be aware of format issues like line length and strange characters that your software may insert into your email. Use a line length of no more than 70 characters, and do use hard carriage returns, regardless of how your software wraps lines. Otherwise, your message my look fine in your mailbox, but in my mailbox, it will be chopped into lines of irregular length that are hard to read. Read and compose in a monospaced font like Courier or Monaco. This will give you lines of text that are spaced to fit monitors and printers in ways that are standard among computer users and software vendors. Some combinations of software (i.e., composing with a word processor and exporting to email software) insert strange characters into email. These won't always be visible to you as you read your message in your mailer, but will send a garbled and hard to read email message to others. This is especially likely to happen when working across platforms (say, composing with a Mac word processor, stuffing your text into your mouse, and pasting it to the UNIX mail application your ISP provides.) The surest way to avoid writing in an imaginary language is to compose email only with your email software. If you must use multiple applications, mail a test message to a friend before mailing one to many strangers who may not appreciate the beauty of the Cyrillic alphabet. You may have to tell your mailer that your language is US English. Avoid characters that don't regularly appear in English, chances are, the list's software and readers' software won't support them. If replying to a message, you may want to "quote" a sentence or two from the original posting to reference your reply as well as the original poster's email address. As:
followed by your reply. In no case should the quoted material exceed the length of your reply. Quote only the bare essentials to make your posting clear. When in doubt, delete. Please don't bother to reply to the list unless you have some actual content to add. If someone asks about LadySlipper records, don't post "They are great, I have their phone number around here someplace." Take a minute, look up the phone number and tell us, "They are great and can be reached at (555) 555-1234. I especially love that new Ani DiFranco album - Up Up Up Up Up Up". Contact phone numbers and email addresses greatly enhance the value of the information posted to the list. Content costs. Someone pays for every byte. Our messages are distributed and replicated far and wide, all over the world. That's very cool, and it requires that we restrain ourselves from giving in to the impulse to post a message that says nothing but "Me too!," no matter how heartfelt. It's also just annoying to put time and effort, maybe money, into reading a message that turns out to be just empty calories. We have this enthusiasm in common, but we pay for the privilege of expressing it. What's "Off-Topic?"
(Before you slam us, yes, that's a lot of great music, yes, it's folk, yes, there's a lot of overlap with those audiences. We just can't cover everything with one list.)
So, it's on topic. What about?...Some things come up again and again, and can never be resolved or even treated with truly new or interesting discussions. We have stopped trying to come to consensus on these purely personal issues. Here's a sample, with definitive answers:
Q: Is Joe Singer really folk? Is the saxophone a folk instrument?.
Q: Who's better, Joe Singer or Bob Crooner?
Q: Why do fans lose interest when locally popular performers
achieve wider recognition? Some postings are strictly verboten on folkmusic
What if I have a specific question, right NOW?Try searching our home WWW site, folkmusic.org . This encyclopedic, searchable reference contains a wealth of information about all aspects of folk music. Point your browser at: http://www.folkmusic.org
Is there other cool Folk Music stuff out there?Yup. This is the tip of the iceberg. Some of the more popular folk-oriented lists include:
http://server.berkeley.edu/ayukawa/lomml.html
Looking for a place to hear great live music near you, or in a town
you'll be visiting? From folkmusic.org, you can read about and search
databases like Musi-Cal, Pollstar, Tourdates.com, and Billboard Magazine's
TourSearch.
For performers interested in developing a strategy for establishing
a presence on the Internet, one approach is outlined in a WWW page
Alan created for a workshop at the 1995 Folk Alliance conference and
has presented at numerous other conferences. Feel free to use it
and please
send him suggestions
on how he can make it better. It's located at
For radio stations carrying folk programming, consult Jeremy Butler's
Folk Radio database.
Find lyrics and tabs for thousands of public domain folk songs
in Dick Greenhaus's Digital Tradition database.
To find the writer of a song, see Alan's Finding Copyrights FAQ.
For links to information about licensing copyrighted material and
paying royalties, contacting performance rights organizations like
ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC, and their Internet resources; and music
publishers like the Harry Fox Agency, see Alan's homepage. Alan's homepage also has links for finding albums, books about the music business, Internet resources for guitarists, sheet music, musicology, MIDI, finding phone numbers, and promoting successful music events. There's other info there too, he updates his page regularly. He's caffeine free, but he sleeps about 10 minutes per day. In GeneralWelcome to folkmusic. We're here to spread the word about how to find great new music and info. Don't forget to spread the word in offline ways, too: support live music in your neighborhood, ask your favorite record store to carry your favorite music, volunteer at a coffeehouse, help your local public radio station, design a tee shirt.
folkmusic FAQ Rev 5.0/
alan@folkmusic.org / revised January 2002
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