Low End Mac’s Powerlist Group

Low End Mac’s Powerlist Group was begun on August 8, 2000 and moved to Google Groups on January 23, 2006. Powerlist exists as a forum for users of Power Computing computers. 

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Be sure to read our guide to netiquette before posting to the group.

Owners of other Macs or clones are encouraged to join the appropriate group(s) listed here.

How can I subscribe to Powerlist?

There are several ways to read messages fromPowerlist:

  • Individual messages
  • Abridged messages, a daily summary of messages
  • Digest mode, a daily collection of full messages
  • No email
  • Online

You can subscribe via email or online.

To subscribe via email, send an email to powerlist+subscribe@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe, send an email to powerlist+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. You must register online if you wish to set your subscription to digest mode, abridged messages, or no email.

To subscribe online, go to http://groups.google.com/group/powerlist and click on Join this group. You do not need a Google/Gmail account to participate. If you don’t have a Gmail address or wish to use another address, click on the Sign up now link.

Although you will begin receiving messages from the group right away, Google Groups will not accept an email posting until you confirm your email address. Also, in an attempt to keep spammers out, the first messages from new members will be checked by a group manager before they are posted.

You will receive a confirmation email from Google Groups at your subscribed address. You must click on the link in this message to verify your email address. That will generate a second email from Google Groups, and it’s only after responding to the second message that you’ll be able to post to the group. Watch out – one or both of these may be marked as junk mail by your spam filter.

Use http://groups.google.com/group/powerlist to change your subscription mode or remove yourself from the group.

How can I distinguish messages from PowerList from all the other email I get?

Messages from this group will include “powerlist” in their footer.

Who oversees Powerlist?

Dan Knight of Low End Mac “owns”Powerlist, which was begun on August 8, 2000.

Is Powerlist only for users of Power Computing computers?

While anyone may join, this group will be most helpful to those using Power Computing computers.

How does Google Groups work?

Anyone who has access to the Internet may join Powerlist using http://groups.google.com/group/powerlist to join the group. Members will receive a copy of every message others have sent to the posting address, powerlist@googlegroups.com. If you wish to reply or post a new message everyone to the group, send email – either replying to the message to which you are responding or sending a new one – to powerlist@googlegroups.com.

The group is set up so selecting “reply” to an individual in your emailer will send a message to the entire group. (Replying to the digest will send your email to noreply@googlegoups.com, a black hole for email.) If you wish to respond individually to the sender of the message, be sure to address your message accordingly. There should be no need to copy messages to both the author and the to the entire group, since the author is a member of the group.

What is netiquette?

There are informal rules of the internet which are termed “netiquette” to help people use proper etiquette within this form of communication. For more on netiquette, click here, then use the back button on your browser to return to this page.

Who is in the group?

That would be telling.

Because Google Groups requires an email address but not a name, we may not have names of all members of the group. We currently have over 135 members, and people don’t need to join the group to read postings online.

How can I get a copy of the email addresses for members?

You can’t. To communicate with the group, send messages to the posting address powerlist@googlegroups.com. Google deliberately blocks access to the subscriber list to prevent addresses from being harvested by spammers.

What topics may be discussed?

Anything relating to Power Computing. Powerlist is mostly an unmoderated closed group. Unmoderated means messages are sent to the group without prior knowledge of the group owner or managers; closed means only members may post. The group is closed to help fight spam, and first postings from new members must be reviewed and approved by a group manager before they are sent to the group, a step made necessary by spammers.

Group managers are authorized to remove the following types of messages from the group archive: spam, test messages, and unsubscribe postings. Content of each message is the responsibility of the person posting it.

Because the group is closed, you will only be able to post from a subscribed address.

What topics may not be discussed?

The list is short:

  • Never post a link for Apple Service Manuals. Apple has a policy of shutting down sites the post such links, and Apple has people on some of our lists, so posting such links contributes to the sites posting this information being shut down. Nobody wins when that happens.
  • These are Apple lists – don’t advocate PCs. Sure, they have their place in the world, but pushing PCs here is asking for trouble. Such posts usually fall under the categories of flaming or trolling. We don’t want that here, so stick to Macs and Power Computing clones.

What tone is expected in the discussion and who will facilitate this?

This has become a kind and helpful community. Since Mac users range from beginners to gurus, please be tolerant of “dumb” questions, and please don’t bait or snipe at each other.

As these groups serve members of all ages and persuasions, potentially offensive, inflammatory, or controversial nicknames, email addresses, domain names, and signatures are not welcome and may lead to your membership being moderated, suspended, or cancelled.

The group is expected to handle things responsibly, and members are expected to behave in such a way that the group requires minimal administrative intervention. When action is required, the group owner and managers will act in accordance with our Rules for Group Management. This page also defines terms (ban, block, flame, troll, etc.) and lists the responsibilities of members.

Please report any major breach of netiquette to the group managers.

Is there an accessible archive of messages sent to Powerlist?

Yes, it’s at http://groups.google.com/group/powerlist.

I subscribed, but get no messages. What’s up?

It is possible to successfully subscribe with an incorrect email address. The Google Groups server checks all bounced messages to determine why they bounced. If the address is invalid, it is removed from the subscriber list. If the problem is temporary, like a full mailbox, the server temporarily suspends it.

If you are subscribing from a free web email account, note that some of these services are very busy and messages may bounce. If this persists, it could lead to your name being removed from the group. I recommend you to use an ISP account for messages from the group instead of a free email service.

We take a hard line against unsolicited commercial email. To prevent spam, the group is closed and known spammers are banned.

I sent a message, but it never appeared. Why?

There are several possible reasons a posting can bounce.

  • You may not have confirmed your subscription yet. Until you start receiving messages from the group, you can’t post to it.
  • Your return address may not match the address you subscribed with. The Google Groups server uses your return (reply to) address to confirm that you are a member of the group and allowed to post.
  • You may have sent email which contains an attachment, styled text, or something other than plain ASCII text. Although Google Groups does not prevent such messages, list managers will reject them. (Attachments may contain malware.)
  • You may have inadvertently sent your message to the wrong address.
  • Your mail server may have appended something to your email that changes your return address so it no longer matches the subscribed address. I’ve only seen that with Yahoo mail so far.

What other Internet resources are available for users of Power Computing computers?

Low End Mac is excellent, in my admittedly biased opinion as webmaster.

Do you have any policies about selling products or services to the group?

I’ve learned that some of the experts on any group gain their expertise professionally. For instance, for several years I was the information systems manager for an 85 Mac network. For those who make a living selling equipment or services, we have the following guidelines.

  1. List members may mention the availability of commercial services or products on the to the entire group, but no prices. (Individuals may list personal equipment with prices.)
  2. All correspondence regarding services or products should be conducted privately, not on the list.
  3. Neither the publisher nor the list managers makes any claim regarding services or products offered by members of the group.

What about the email swap meet?

To simplify things and give everyone an equal chance, we no longer run a swap meet. Instead, we have set up the Low End Mac Swap List as a place for group members to buy and sell Mac-related goods.

For the most part, items for sale should be listed on the swap list to the entire group, which has over 2,200 members. We do make exceptions for the international lists (Australia, Canada, UK), the non-Mac lists (Apple II, Lisa, Newton), and items that would only be of interest to members of a specific to the entire group, such as Mac clones. Keep in mind that LEM Swap is probably the best place to list items for sale, since it has more members than any of the other lists.

We also have national/regional LEM Swap groups on Facebook: LEM Swap Australia (plus New Zealand), LEM Swap Canada, LEM Swap UK, and LEM Swap USA.

That said, the swap list is a very busy group, and we don’t think anyone should have to subscribe just so they can sell a personal item or system, so we do allow posting of items for sale on all lists – but only when they are germane to that list. That means no posting Quadras for sale to the iMac group, for instance.

To avoid this group turning into a swapfest, we restrict members of such postings to once per calendar year

We discourage posting links to your eBay and other online auctions, and such postings are explicitly forbidden on the swap list. We also discourage links to other items available through online auctions unless they are unusual and of special interest to that to the entire group, such as the Piña tomes covering vintage Macs.

Do you block any specific domains?

We are firmly committed to the free exchange of information on our lists. Some mail servers censor incoming email – orvis.com in particular. We don’t take preemptive action against members using such mail servers, but we do reserve the right to unceremoniously unsubscribe them without advance notice when their content filters “quarantine” messages from the group.

Dan Knight, group owner

Keywords: #powercomputing