Here's something I wrote a few weeks ago that anyone can use.
Please feel free to punch it up or just reuse the information -
it was written in a hurry (I occasionally get requests, but the
deadline is usually yesterday ;-).
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The Ferret Mailing List - a truly international ferret club...
Chris Lewis, FML Editor, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
What is the Ferret Mailing List (FML)? Well, even I, the editor,
sometimes have difficulties trying to describe it. But I'll try.
I guess the best way is describing what it is now, and a little of
its history.
The FML is somewhat like a club of pet ferret owners that are having
a continous club meeting chatting about their pets. Chatting about,
for example, how to make ferret hammocks (sp?), what to feed their
ferrets, funny ferret stories, new vaccines, progress on legalizing
ferrets in some areas that ban them and so on. Some of the more
notable stories have been eye-witness and "as it happens" accounts
of the destruction wrought by hurricane Andrew and the attempts by
FML members to save and support ferret shelters devastated by the
storm. Including, at one point, being the only means by which
people on the scene could communicate with the outside world.
The FML has also covered new research on the treatment of various
ferret diseases, such as cancer, Cushings disease and others.
The difference is that the conversations are carried by electronic
mail, between people using computers. It's not quite like a computer
bulletin board, where there's really only one computer, with many
people using it. The FML is home on a world-wide network called
Internet that consists of hundreds of thousands of computers
representing several million people. Plus links to other networks
(such as Compuserve and GEnie) and traditional bulletin board systems.
There are FML subscribers from all over the place - Japan, Sweden,
England, Korea, France, Canada (where the FML comes from), but the
majority are in the USA.
This is a short description of how it works. Say one of the
subscribers has a question about ferret bedding materials. He (or
she) would compose a letter on their computer, and electronically
mail the letter to the FML editor's computer (my computer to
be precise). I then combine this letter with any others that
I've received, and then broadcast (also by electronic mail) the FML
"issue" to the FML subscribers. It's a lot like the "letters to the
editor" section of a newspaper, except that these letters are really
a two-way conversation amongst many people. At the present time,
there are, on average, 5 letters a day, and an issue containing
these letters is broadcast to the membership every day or two.
If one of the subscribers has a answer to the question about
bedding materials, they also compose a letter and send it to the
FML editor, which is broadcast, again, to the whole membership.
The delay between question and answer is usually a day or less.
How many people does the FML reach? Well, it's a little hard to
tell. There are currently about 220 people on the primary subscriber
list. Plus, quite probably, several thousand more people who have
access to the newsletter indirectly through other computer networks,
university campus systems and other means. The subscribers themselves
run the gamut from people interested in ferrets but don't own one,
through pet owners, veterinary students, veterinarians, and executive
members of various ferret organizations. There are also quite a few
people who live and own ferrets in places that ban them for various
(silly, intensely political) reasons. These people can still participate
without risking legal action, because the editor will remove names and
addresses from the letters on request.
And the occasional person who thinks that the FML is about a
computer program called "ferret" (this is a computer network after
all ;-) [Tilt your head 90 degrees counterclockwise. Doesn't ";-)"
look like a little face smiling and winking at you?...]
[the previous paragraph is probably useless fluff that should be
deleted first if this is too long.]
The FML started in December 1987, when the author decided that the
normal pet "forums" on the Internet news service (called "USENET")
weren't focussed or disciplined enough to encourage and promote
conversations about ferrets, and had 13 original subscribers - some
of which are still with us 5 years later. During the first couple of
years, articles came out on average less than once a week, but during the
last two, it's closer to 4 or 5 times a week. We're currently up to issue
480. The FML is one of the older Internet mailing lists, but
certainly not the largest (the largest has tens of thousands of
subscribers).
How do you get access to the FML? If you use electronic
mail, you can get mail to "[log in to unmask]"
on the Internet, and you can receive mail back from the Internet,
you can subscribe. After sending mail to ferret-request, you'll
be subscribed and get further instructions on how to participate.
Oh, and by the way, it's completely free - there's no charge to
be a subscriber to the FML.
[Posted in FML issue 0478]
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