Subj : Elist help To : All From : Vincent Coen Date : Sat May 01 2021 15:00:25 Quick Help for Moderators EList v5.2c - The Elist program Copyright (c) 2020 - 2021 by Vincent B. Coen, FBCS Note: The information in this guide was taken from A Moderator's Guide to ECHOBASE (c) Dana Bell, with changes by Ben Ritchey and then customized by Vincent Coen. This file may be designated as the file to be sent in response to requests for HELP. EList v5 is a database program that maintains a database of echomail conference information. This particular program was written to meet the need to maintain and distribute echomail conference lists within Fidonet and with other networks. The Fidonet Echolist published by this program include ELIST.NA a short, areafix uplink file format distributed monthly, ELIST.RPT, a longer descriptive file distributed on a monthly basis and ELIST.NO a short list of all deleted echo's. It is a rolling list in that it will only contain deleted Echos along with the date, with any renewed one's at any later date within 12 months being removed for the specific echo. Any entries will be removed after one year from being added as deemed to no longer being relevant hence the reason for the included date. Moderators may add or update entries to elist by supplying submission files sent directly to 2:25/21 or 2:250/1. Currently such Additions, Updates or Deletions to the Echomail database must be sent as files as ECHOtag.RUL for any rules file and as ECHOtag.ECO as MOD-ADD, MOD-UPD or MOD-DEL requests and these subjects MUST be placed after the keyword SUBJect. Once Elist can process Netmail msgs they will be converted to a individual ECHOtag.ECO file and processed the same way without any more changes to the program. It is hoped that the same will apply to Emails. The program will read these files and update the EList database, then post a reply to the ELIST conference and via Netmail. These options i.e., via netmail or email is NOT currently available as a software solution has not yet been found for use under Linux. It is hoped that Updates via Email will be also available some time in the future via elistmaint@gmail.com and this facility will be announced in the ELIST echo area once available along with any update to the email address used as well as usage of netmail to directly deliver such messages instead of using files. This email address is NOT being monitored at this time. NOTE that ONLY dropping off the files tag.ECO and tag.RUL to 2:25/21 or 2:250/1 is supported for the moment. The FROM address is always used for replies. For the moment delivery of MOD-ADD, MOD-UPD and MOD-DEL messages MUST come as files only, along with any rules file with the following file names : For MOD-ADD, UPD and DEL as echotag.ECO For rules files as echotag.RUL Where echotag is the Echo area tag that is up to 36 characters in length. Note that for MOD requests you can also add the subject to the end of the extension i.e., MBSE.ECOMOD-ADD or MBSE.ECOMOD-UPD [ Note that there is NO space between MOO and UPD or ADD only a hyphen. ] When sending in multiple submissions for the same echo you should add a number after the echotag name as all submissions are processed in sorted alphabetic order, i.e., MBSE1.ECO MBSE2.ECO. Use the following keywords to set the fields of your echo list submission and note that only the upper case characters are significant e.g., only SUBJ is needed for SUBJect. All keywords shown starting with * are mandatory - they MUST be provided. For keywords FROM, MOD, COMODn and REPLY the following is the format for your contact address where text with {} are optional extras and as needed: Contact Address: A1 A2 A3 Sub field class name as used below. , [, ] Note the (required) separating commas. A1 name = first last names i.e., Fred Bloggs - Compulsory [ note the space between name elements ] A2 node = zone:net/node {@domain} i.e., 2:345/678 - Compulsory. A3 email = name@emailaddress i.e., fbloggs@gmail.com You can use '{at}' or '=at=' in place of the at sign [@] and this will be the one used in ELIST reporting once email support is operational. You may omit the elements between [] but name is needed to respond to an update in the ELIST echo so that a problem or not, can be addressed to the specific poster along with the netmail address for sending a direct message as well. If omitted, a posting could be addressed to SYSOP, UNKnown, 'No Idea' and other variations depending on where in the elist program the posting report is issued (helps in debugging). None of which, aids the moderator doing a search on their name to check the latest postings. KEYWORDS in use Where characters in UPPER CASE are relevant and the * signifies a mandatory keyword - (You Must provide it but without the '*'). Keyword Sub keywords or other text ------- -------------------------- *SUBJect MOD-UPD or MOD-ADD or MOD-DEL When netmail and emails submissions are accepted MOD-ADD, MOD-UPD or MOD-DEL must be in the message subject line - hence one of the reasons for the need of this keyword. *FROM Details of the sender of message where any replies regarding errors or confirmation of status of submission is made to. x36. *TITLe x72. *DESCription 15 lines where the text is a maximum of 75 characters (not including the keyword 'DESC'). RULEs x75 Can also be DELETE | NONE | spaces DELETE will remove any existing rule file and then be treated as if NONE was supplied. NONE There are no rules for this echo. Can be omitted, also see RULETEXT. If both RULES and RULETEXT omitted then there are no rules. If both are supplied, the content from RULETEXT overrides. NOTE that the above symbol '|' means or, i.e., a choice. *MODerator Contact Address. This keyword MUST be submitted before any COMODn keywords. For COMODn see more information under new keywords but note that COMODn HAS replace 'COMOD '. COMODn Where n = 1, 2, 3 or 4. This keyword has replaced the keyword COMOD. It's usage allows the moderator to control precisely where each Co-Moderator sits in the list of four. Next word can be DELETE which will clear all contact information for that Co-Moderator otherwise the next word is the contact address for that Co-Moderator. REPLY-to Contact Address. Usually same as one in keywords MOD or FROM Note that usage of Email address is optional for all Keywords that use contact address as shown above and that the address in the FROM keywords is normally used. This keyword is some what redundant as FROM is used to respond to for all issues and reporting. *PASSword , x36, x36. [Note the required space after the comma (',') if new password is used.] VOLume nnnnn per month. Use a realistic number. Anything after the number is ignored as per month is automatically assumed. RESTrictions (Only the first four letters are needed along with /) or text> x72. These predefined settings can be supplied in any order. You can have one, two or all three of these predefined values and you can add additional text at the end an example is : /SYS Region 1234 write access only. ORIGin x36. More used in the days where almost all posts originated from one netmail address. DISTribution Any text describing x72. GATEway Any text describing x72. *GROUP MUST be the LAST Keyword that finishes with the end line '---' or '-+-' x75 wide but NO line limits - as many as you need. This will generate a file as TAGname.RUL and the content will be listed in the ELIST.RPT reports. It will be treated exactly the same as a .RUL file and will in fact create one, replacing any existing rules file. Any and all lines consisting of spaces will be included. HELP The latest version of this file ! --- Or "-+-" terminates a RULETEXT keyword block. Also useful as you can place other text after, such as keywords unused as they will be totally ignored. * Means these are compulsory - they must always be supplied. xnn is the maximum size in characters of the field after the keyword. New keywords or changes to modes of operation: ============================================== *SUBJect MOD-UPD or MOD-ADD or MOD-DEL When netmail and emails submissions are accepted MOD-ADD, MOD-UPD or MOD-DEL must be in the message subject line - hence one of the reasons for the need of this keyword. *FROM Contact Address. Sending moderators address see above for the exact format Can also be any registered CoMod for the echo. COMODn Where n = 1, 2, 3 or 4. This keyword has replaced the redundant keyword COMOD. It's usage allows the moderator to control precisely where each Co-Moderator sits in the list of four. DELETE will remove any contact information for the specific Co Moderator. # In the first character position of a line that is NOT in a RULETEXT block. The line will be ignored. = Treated axactly the same as # Spaces When not in a RULETEXT block will also be ignored, A minimum example MOD-ADD file might have this : SUBJ MOD-ADD TAG ECHOES GROUP FIDO FROM Joe Sysop, 1:234/56 PASS password LANG ENGLISH TITL FIDONet echoes discussion MOD Joe Sysop, 1:234/56 DESC Discussions about echoes and moderators. Which will create a new echo entry for ECHOES for the FIDO network using the English language created and moderated by Joe Sysop. A minimum example MOD-UPD file with no changes is : SUBJ MOD-UPD TAG echo-name GROUP FIDO FROM Joe Sysop, 1:234/45 PASS password Likewise for a MOD-DEL file just replace SUBJ with MOD-DEL for the above example. This is actioned during the next expiry warning run The keywords are truncated prior to checking, so matching will only be done for the capitalised portion of the keyword. Keywords may be capitalized or lower case. The following three entries will have the same effect. TAG BOARD_GAMES Tagname BOARD_GAMES tag BOARD_GAMES However the capitalised text in the keyword descriptions above show the elements of a keyword that MUST be supplied regardless of the case supplied in the submission. Optionally end the message with --- or -+- (three-dashes or dash, Plus symbol, dash) indicating the end of the message file. This should be supplied if using keyword RULETEXT otherwise is NOT needed. With the exception of the DESCription field, only one entry is allowed per field. If multiple entries are included in the text, processing will continue but only the last one will be saved. If you don't have an entry for a field, there is no need to include the keyword (specifying JUST the keyword will erase/blank any existing value(s) for keywords REPLY, REST. DIST, ORIG, GATE. COMODn must use DELETE to remove any existing details for that co-mod. Only the GROUP. ECHOtag, SUBJect, FROM and PASSword are necessary for updating. Update submissions to the Echolist that don't require any changes may be done by including the above mentioned keywords. Full details already in the database will remain the same. New echos, will again require the above mentioned keywords at a minimum. In order to delete a echo area from the list, you must use the subject MOD-DEL. When submitting an entry with the DESC field, be sure to begin each line with DESC and end it as with any other keywords with a hard carriage return. Note that there can only be one line with a RULES keyword. For multi line rules use the keyword RULETEXT see below. (Some editors may word wrap all messages and strip carriage returns when saving. Some of these editors, however, may allow you to force carriage returns by indenting.) Avoid any that use the TAB as it is not honoured and any will be replaced by space. Using RULEs DELETE will clear content of rules AND delete any existing .RUL file. NOTE: blank lines after DESC keyword will RESET everything to null, as with all text based keywords. For RULETEXT, every line is included as is. You can insert the content of your MOD-RUL text file (just the body of text) on the next and following lines right AFTER the RULETEXT keyword at the END of a MOD-UPD submission (naturally for the same Tag name). The content of RULETEXT will create a .RUL with the same Echo tag name (as upper case) followed by the extension .RUL, again in upper case. For latest changes also see the documents README-Elist and Fast-Readme.txt where more information may be present to extend these details. The Fast-Readme file is always kept up too date. Address any questions to the ELIST controller Vince Coen at 2:25/21, by choice at the Echolist echo itself, [ELIST] or via Email to vbcoen@gmail.com for a faster response. -=:{ End of EListHlp.Txt }:=- This document last updated : 2020/03/24 Vincent Coen, 2:250/1 or vbcoen@gmail.com Updated content for readability, helpfully. 2020/04/12 Tidy up explanations on keywords. 2020/04/19 Spelling errors mostly on the original. 2020/05/08 Updated version of Elist to current. 2020/05/24 Updated to match latest version of elist (5.1.60) and the Fast-Readme.txt help file. 2020/12/11 Minor grammar fixes and CR date. 2021/04/08 Minor grammar with additional notes & update s/w version. --- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.21 (GNU/Linux-x86_64) * Origin: The Elist Maintainer (2:250/1) .