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Countdown-L is a moderated discussion list open to any professional giving
advice to dairy farmers including vets, milking machine technicians, HIO
representatives, Factory Field staff, Government advisors, equipment and product
representatives, dairy consultants, TAFE lecturers and retailers.
Membership
of the list is restricted to encourage advisers to exchange advice about real
cases.
About the list
You can subscribe by sending a
short introductory message to moderator@countdown.org.au
This message will establish your
credentials as a dairy adviser and serve as an introductory message to the other
members of the list.
We
suggest that your first message should tell us a bit about you:
-
your
name
-
your
role in the dairy industry
-
where
you work
-
what
the major mastitis and milk quality issues are from your perspective
-
what
you are hoping to get from the list.
Please
include a signature at the end of every message – including your name, town or
dairying region and email address.
Once your application has been
approved by the moderator, your introductory message will be posted to the list
for all to see.
We will also send you a welcome
message with some advice about the working of the list – similar to the
following...
Welcome
message
Welcome
to Countdown-L
This
discussion list has been established by Countdown Downunder to give dairy
advisers a forum in which they can exchange advice and tips.
To
send a message to Countdown-L just email it to: moderator@countdown.org.au
Please
include a signature at the end of every message – including your name, town or
dairying region and email address.
One
of the Countdown Downunder team will moderate your message and then post it to
all the members of the list. We may not post messages that we think are
off-topic, commercial, or which contain attachments or non-standard formatting.
Please
remember this is a discussion list and that no warranty of accuracy or
reliability of the information and guidelines is given, and no responsibility
for loss arising in any way from or in connection with errors or omissions in
any information or advice or use of the guidelines is accepted by Dairy Australia, the member organisations of the Australian Mastitis
Advisory Council, their employees or consultants.
To
leave the list please send your request to moderator@countdown.org.au
Other tips
for working with the list
How
will you benefit?
This
discussion list will help you to network with other advisors, share ideas, ask
questions and collaboratively solve problems. It will include professionals from
across Australia and even overseas. Remember you will not necessarily know
exactly who is also subscribed to the discussion list.
How
does it work?
You
subscribe (free of charge) to the list. When someone on the group sends (posts)
an email message to the group it goes to everyone who has subscribed via the
moderator. Responses also go to
everyone, again, via the moderator. This way we can have an electronic
discussion with many people participating and with some quality control to avoid
abuse of the list.
The
discussion is not done in real time.
This means you can log onto your computer, read the comments so far then post
you response in your own time! Discussions can run for days or weeks.
Tips
and Traps
- The most useful discussion lists are those that are used.
Seems an obvious statement, but if you wait for someone else to start the
ball rolling, maybe nothing will happen and you’ll forget it even exists.
So the list is only useful as you make it.
- When you first subscribe it’s useful for others to know something about
you. (a bit of net-iquettee this is called)
The easiest way to do this to send a posting to the list saying you have
just subscribed and giving a bit of information about yourself.
Here are some ideas for your introduction to the chat group:
We
suggest that your first message should tell us a bit about you:
-
your name
-
your role in the dairy industry
-
where you work
-
what the major mastitis and milk quality issues are from your perspective
-
what you are hoping to get from the list.
-
Include
your email signature at the end of your message – including
your name, town or region, and email address.
-
Remember your messages go to everyone on the list. If you want to send a
personal email to someone on the list, or reply just to the person who sent a
message, send your email directly to their personal email address.
Other wise you could be very embarrassed (but, don’t worry, we’ve all
done this at least once!). It can also be very annoying to other people reading
personal messages.
-
Avoid sending attachments via the chat group as they can clog up
people’s email while they download and can potentially harbor viruses.
-
Try to send your messages using plain text.
Many
e-mail systems allow for special formatting in the messages eg bold text,
special fonts italics etc. Some e-mail systems even have these formats turned on
as the default option. Don’t use
these formats. Other list members are using programs that can’t cope with
these features so your message won’t get through to them, or it will have a
large section of “garbage” text with it.
In
Microsoft Outlook, turn off rich text form and/or html format for messages to
the discussion list. In Netscape Messenger, turn on the send mail in plain text
option.
To
remove yourself from the list
Please
send a message to moderator@countdown.org.au
Who
to contact if you have problems?
Please
contact the Countdown Downunder office: ph 03 9620 7283, fax 03 9642
8133, email cath@countdown.org.au
Additonal
References
Countdown-L has a strict policy
of no attachments.
If we receive an attachment which
we want our subscribers to see it will be placed on
this page.
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For
more information on Countdown Downunder