NAM-VETS MAILING LIST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Welcome to 'Nam... Chelte-nham... The email list for Cheltenham wierdos. socialising - chat - gossip - jokes - pubs - events - music IF YOU ONLY READ ONE PART OF THIS DOCUMENT, READ SECTION 2. *1* What is the Nam-Vets mailing list? *2* What are the rules? *3* How do I join (subscribe)? *4* How do I send messages? *5* How do I leave (unsubscribe)? *6* How do I find out who's on the list? *7* What's on the website? *8* What's this diary thing? *9* How do I get help from a real person? *10* Glossary Updated 20/08/02 by Andrew Oakley . The latest version of this document is always available on the web, together with a subscribers' gallery at http://nam-vets.org or email with the message INFO NAM-VETS -------------- *1* What is the Nam-Vets mailing list? -------------- Nam-vets is a private social discussion forum for a group of friends from Cheltenham Spa, Gloucestershire, UK. This means it's a load of idle chat (sorry, no Vietnam heroes or veterinary surgeons here). Many of us still live in the area. Many of us have been goths at one time or another. Many of us have attended Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education. Many of us drink in the same pubs. The only thing linking every one of us is that we all met in Cheltenham. Nam-vets is an Internet Mailing List. This means that when you send one email to a special address, it gets sent on to everybody in the list. It's run automatically by a computer program called MajorDomo. --------------------- *2* What are the rules? ---------------------- * PLAIN TEXT ONLY. You cannot send binaries- pictures, programs, web pages, formatted text such as bold, italic, fonts etc. Anything larger than 40k (8 pages, 500 lines) will be delayed and checked. * NO VIRUS WARNINGS. You can't get a virus by plain text email. * NO SPAM. No get rich quick schemes, chain letters etc. * DON'T PASS ON ANY POSTS IN WHOLE OR PART without permission. * KEEP COOL. It's often difficult to express irony, sarcasm and other forms of dry humour in text. If you read something you find offensive, DON'T REPLY STRAIGHT AWAY. Come back to it after your next meal. If you think what you've written could be misinterpreted, use the smiley symbol :-) to express humour. * FORMAL COMPLAINTS: If any three members formally complain about you within 7 days, you will be stopped from posting for 7 days. After that, if any three members formally complain about you within 30 days, you will be removed from the list and require proposing again to rejoin. A formal complaint must be made in public on nam-vets, must outline the grounds of the complaint and must include the phrase "formal complaint". Typical grounds of complaint include jokes in very poor taste; sexism, racism etc. * OBSERVE NETIQUETTE. In particular do not copy someone else's massive email and just add a few words like "I agree". Instead delete all irrelevant lines of theirs and explain your opinions. ------------------ *3* How do I join (subscribe)? ------------------ Nam-vets is a closed membership list. To join, you must be recommended by 20% of existing members whose membership exceeds six months. The maximum number of members is 40. If there are already 40 members you must wait until someone leaves before a new member can join. There may be a waiting list. If you are an existing member and you wish to recommend someone: 1. Meet the proposed new member face-to-face. 2. Confirm that the proposed new member wishes to join. 3. Email nam-vets saying that you wish to recommend someone. 4. Campaign until 20% of members agree. 5. If less than 20% of members disagree within 7 days, they will be signed up as soon as their email address is known. ------------------- *4* How do I send messages? -------------------- Send an email to and it will get passed on to everyone else on the list in under an hour. This is a DIFFERENT email address from the one for subscribing etc. BEWARE OF THE "REPLY" FUNCTION of your email program. If you reply to a message from Nam-Vets, it'll go to everyone on the Nam-Vets list. If you only want to reply to the person who sent the original message, use SEND or FORWARD and fill in their email address. Are your messages not getting through? Read the rules in section 2. ----------------- *5* How do I leave (unsubscribe)? ---------------- Send an email to with the words UNSUBSCRIBE NAM-VETS in the body of the message. Leave the subject blank. This is NOT the same email address for sending messages. ------------- *6* How do I find out who's on the list? ------------- Send an email to with the words WHO NAM-VETS in the body of the message. Leave the subject blank. You will be sent an up-to-date report of all the subscribers' email addresses in under an hour. This is NOT the same address for sending messages. -------------------- *7* What's on the website? -------------------- The Nam-Vets website is at: http://nam-vets.org You can use www.nam-vets.org or www.custodian.com/nam-vets also. It includes the Nam-Vets Subscribers' Gallery, with photos and brief details of many, but not necessarily all, Nam-Vets subscribers. You can add your own entry by following the links- you'll be emailed a password. The site also contains the latest version of the Nam-Vets FAQ (this document), an events diary, plus an interactive list of links to subscribers' website projects, local resources and other pages of interest to subscribers. You can update these using your password. ------------------- *8* What's this diary thing? ------------------- The website contains an events diary. Every Monday morning, an email is automatically sent listing all the events for the next 31 days. To add events to the diary, go to the Nam-Vets website and follow the diary links: http://nam-vets.org ------------ *9* How do I get help from a real person? ------------- Email Andrew Oakley or telephone him on Cheltenham 620751. Andrew is the Nam-Vets list administrator. When Andrew is not available, email Chris Dunham Thanks to James Cronin of The Flirble Organisation for use of their MajorDomo server. See their web page: http://www.flirble.org -------------------------- *10* Glossary --------------------------- Ask The Namily - subject heading used to indicate that the sender wishes to pick the list member's brains. From "Ask The Family", a shite 70's TV quiz. Axiom - arts centre and pop concert/nightclub venue which closed due to fraud in February 2000. Most events moved to Bransons. Bransons - nightclub on Albion Street currently hosting most goth/ industrial/metal/gabba/alternative events in Cheltenham. C&GCHE, college - Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education, place where many nam-vets members did their degrees. Now GlosUni. Cafe Continental - Goth/student nightclub on Regent Street, now called The Office and not goth anymore. The Chaos Engine played their first gig there. Was also famed for lax age restrictions and a gaping hole in the upstairs dancefloor. CCCP - Cheltenham Computer Collective Pile, the nam-vets computer hardware pool, a collection of second hand computer components. Part profit-making scheme, part charity, part Multicoloured Swapshop, this is the first port of call if you need computer spares. Or entire computers. Chaos Engine - industrial band run by nam-vets members Lee, Huw and Kelly with a solid fanbase. Council Contractor College Consipracy - noted pattern that local councillors responsible for planning and development are also closely linked to local building contractors and the college. CountB Friendly - phrase used to denote whether a venue is wheelchair accessible, particularly for nam-vets member James's rather enlongated wheelchair/stretcher thing. Everyman - theatre on Regent Street previously staffed by nam-vets member Chris Dunham (ChrisD) who is also keeper of the CCCP. Gas - Goth/student nightclub on St James Square, now called Embassy and Knights and not goth anymore. GlosUni - was C&GCHE Inky Sucks - Inkkubus Sukkubus, local tradgoth/pagan folk band. JT - Janet Trotter, head of C&GCHE. Norwood Street Posse - early/mid 90's group of C&GCHE students who all lived in or near Great Norwood Street and shagged anything that moved. Many nam-vets members were part of this. Owl Solutions, Raptor, NetSoft-UK - various computer start-ups which have employed various nam-vets members over the years. NetSoft-UK is the latest/most successful and is based on Royal Crescent. Parallel Cheltenham - strange phenomenon whereby people, who have lived/studied/worked/drunk in Cheltenham for years, have never met and have vastly different experiences of the town, despite their similar lifestyles. POW - Prince of Wales, pub on Portland Street famed for unruly punters and lax closing times. Now out of favour due to the punters getting so unruly as to threaten personal safety; current popular pub is the 2Pigs. Shag Family Tree - hypothetical diagram showing who slept with who. ShiteOwl - Heavy metal nightclub on the High Street, known at various times as the Night Owl, Misty's and The Attic. Famed for it's unforgiving polished metal dancefloor and poor hygiene. Currently closed. ShiteOwl Theory - hypothesis that all dreadful nightclubs are interlinked by a wormhole in spacetime caused by the gravitational effects of puddles of urine. This explains why you can't remember how you arrived at or left a particular nightclub; what actually happened is that you entered the loo in one nightclub and were then instantly transported to the loo of another nightclub. Smiley Big Head - Derek, a local "character" and war veteran, who suffered mental problems after a particularly unpleasant WW2 army career and now wanders around Cheltenham shouting, dressed as a tramp and dragging a tartan shopping trolley, despite owning a very large house in Leckhampton. [spod] - subject heading used to indicate that the thread has become deeply technical and that it can be safely ignored by anyone not interested in that sort of thing. swgoth - south west goth mailing list. Sister list to nam-vets, open to all goths from Worcestershire to Cornwall, but with an emphasis on Bristol and Bath. Hosted on the same server and administered by James. TiG, ThisIsGlos - www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk, the website run by the local Gloucestershire Echo newspaper and staffed by nam-vets member Lee. 2Pigs - The Two Pigs pub and nightclub on High Street, has a few alternative events, previously a very dodgy pub called Copperfields frequented by drug dealers. UPG - uk.people.gothic Usenet newsgroup, set up by nam-vets member Andrew and a chap called Alien from Oxford because alt.gothic was getting too full of crap. UPG promptly became full of crap and we set up regional mailing lists like nam-vets instead.