Although the rest of this page is for existing IRFCA members, if you are not a member of IRFCA and are wondering how to join, here are the instructions. The mailing list is currently hosted by Yahoo Groups. You can subscribe by using the form below, which will take you to the Yahoo Groups sign-up page: enter the e-mail address where you want to receive the list messages and click the button.
If you prefer, you can visit the sign-up page directly: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irfca/join.
You will need a Yahoo id; if you do not have one, you will be led through the procedure for getting one from the sign-up page.
If you are unable to sign up over the web, you can also join the list by sending a (blank) e-mail message from the address where you would like to receive the list messages, to irfca-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. You will get a reply in response, with further instructions.
After you complete the sign-up procedure, you will be sent a request for more information by e-mail. You must reply to this message. This additional step helps us keep out spammers and those inadvertently signing up, as well as to understand your interests in IR and motivations for joining IRFCA.
If you experience difficulties signing up over the web or by e-mail, you can also send e-mail to the list administrators at webmaster
There is no obligation in the form of any duties or membership fees for the mailing list. It is free and you can participate in whatever discussions interest you. Please be sure to read the group guidelines.
Send a blank e-mail message to irfca-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com from the mailing address where you receive IRFCA mail. If this fails, or if you prefer to do this over the web, log on to the Yahoo Groups site and set your delivery options for IRFCA there at the IRFCA subscription page. If you have any problems with this, send mail with your request to irfca-owner@yahoogroups.com.
All administrative correspondence (mailing list and web site):
Yes. To receive the messages from IRFCA in the form of a daily digest, send (blank) e-mail to irfca-digest@yahoogroups.com. You can also set this delivery option ("Daily Digest") after logging on to the Yahoo Groups subscription page for IRFCA. A digest usually has about 20 to 25 messages in it. If there are more messages on a given day, you may get two digests or more, as appropriate, each with about 25 messages in it.
To temporarily suspend receipt of e-mail messages from the list, send a blank e-mail message to irfca-nomail@yahoogroups.com. You can also set this delivery option (choose "Web only / no email") after logging on to the Yahoo Groups subscription page for IRFCA. When this option is chosen, you don't receive messages in your mailbox, but you can still read all the messages at the web site. (You must have a Yahoo id to be able to read the messages on the web.)
To resume normal delivery of individual e-mail messages from the list, send a blank e-mail message to irfca-normal@yahoogroups.com, or select the "Individual Email" delivery option after logging on to the Yahoo Groups subscription page for IRFCA.
There are a couple of different ways to do this.
Note: The IRFCA list administrators can only unsubscribe you and re-subscribe you with a different address. They cannot change your e-mail address while keeping your Yahoo id subscribed to the list.
Yes, you can have an alternate e-mail address for posting while you receive e-mail from the list at another (primary) address. To set this up, log on to the Yahoo Groups web site, click on the My Preferences link, and then the Edit button for Email Accounts. You can specify up to 5 alternate e-mail addresses (for each of the e-mail addresses where you receive a list susbscription).
You have to sign in to the Yahoo Groups web site before using any of the features such as accessing shared files, posting or reading messages at the Yahoo Groups web site, participating in or setting up polls, unsubscribing or suspending delivery, etc. To sign in, go to http://groups.yahoo.com. Enter your Yahoo id and your Yahoo password in the sign-in area and click "Sign In".
Once you are signed on, you will see a list of the groups you are a member of (My Groups on the left) (or you can click on the "My Groups" link at the top to see a more detailed view of your subscriptions to mailing lists). Click on "irfca" under My Groups to access the main IRFCA page. The various features such as the message archive, shared files, polls, etc. are then available along the left of the IRFCA page.
You can also go to the IRFCA page directly at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irfca and sign in from there.
If you do not have a Yahoo id, or if the Yahoo id you see is not associated with your IRFCA subscription, see below.
To use the the Yahoo Groups web site, including the Yahoo Groups IRFCA pages you need to have a Yahoo id and password. If you have a Yahoo id for e-mail or other services, and if you used that id when you signed up for IRFCA, then that is the Yahoo id to use to sign in with when you visit the Yahoo Groups pages.
If you are a member of IRFCA and receiving the group e-mail, but you do not have a Yahoo id, then you can sign up for one very easily. Go to the Yahoo Groups web site. Just below the sign-in box which asks for the Yahoo id and password, you will find a link that says "Don't have a Yahoo id? Sign up." Use that link to register for a Yahoo id.
Go to the Yahoo Groups site and click on the link, "Forgot your ID or password?" just below the place where it asks for your login and password, and follow the directions there.
In some cases, especially if you have used multiple e-mail addresses to subscribe to Yahoo Groups, you may find that your Yahoo id is associated with only some of your group subscriptions but not all. Yahoo has a Membership Conversion page where you can enter information about the e-mail addresses you have used to sign up for various groups, including IRFCA, and have them be associated with your Yahoo id.
You must first sign in to the Yahoo Groups site (see above for instructions) before accessing any resources there such as shared files. If you have not signed in, the site does not know who you are and therefore issues an error message, saying "You need to sign in to access irfca". You only need to sign in once for the period of your web session. Once you sign in, you can access the URLs for shared image and other files directly. You can browse other web sites and return to the Yahoo Groups site and you will still be signed on. If you shut down your web browser or switch off your computer, you will have to sign in again the next time.
Currently, Yahoo Groups requires the use of cookies to allow sign-in. You will not be able to use any of the group features such as accessing the shared files, reading or posting messages from the Yahoo Groups web site, etc. without signing in after turning cookies on. You can still receive and post messages by e-mail, and you can control your subscription options via e-mail.
Check if you have had problems with receiving any other mail. Yahoo! Groups has a rather sensitive mechanism to check for mail delivery success, and this often leads to its concluding that a member's account is bouncing mail, when in fact the problem might have been a temporary one. Once your account is marked as bouncing, Yahoo! Groups sends you a reactivation message. You *must* reply to this message before mail delivery to you resumes.
In a limited number of cases, the administrators may be able to reactivate your account and enable you to resume receiving IRFCA mail, but in most cases this cannot be done until the Yahoo system has attempted its automatic reactivation. Please wait for a day or two to see if you get the reactivation request before getting in touch with the list administrators for help.
There is no standard chat channel in use now. The Yahoo chat channel based on the Yahoo Messenger that was in use earlier has been discontinued as Yahoo has stopped allowing user-created chat channels in the manner they used to. Unfortunately, the Yahoo Groups Java-based chat program does not work. Some members occasionally chat using IRC (e.g., server irc.freenode.net, channel #irfca).
If you did not make any changes to your subscription options, you can ignore such confirmation mail from Yahoo. In most cases, these messages are the result of virus mail being sent to one of the subscription addresses at Yahoo in your name. The virus may have been running on a computer someone else uses, not necessarily yours. This is an annoyance but not much can be done about it, and it is the reason that Yahoo insists on the confirmation mail for joining or leaving a group.
There is a IRFCA sign-up box page where you can see a sample of the IRFCA sign-up box and a link to get the HTML code for it, which you can copy and paste into your own web page. You may modify the HTML to suit the placement, etc. of the sign-up box on your page, but please check with irfca-owner@yahoogroups.com if you intend to make any changes to the logo and other elements.
Some important considerations when posting to the list are shown below. Disregard of these guidelines may result in the suspension of your participation in the list, at the discretion of the administrators of the list.
Finally, remember to read this FAQ before posting questions!
Your material: Any material that is your own (i.e., you own copyright to it because you wrote or created it) is still yours after you post it to the list or upload it to the Yahoo Groups IRFCA site. If you are concerned about others' use of your material, be sure to note any restrictions on its use in a note to the group. Read the Yahoo Groups terms of service regarding technical requirements for storing and reproducing your material for the purposes of running the mailing list service. You also retain the copyright to any material of yours that is submitted to and used on the IRFCA.org site; however, by submitting your material to IRFCA.org you grant the webmasters permission to reformat or alter your material to suit the technical requirements of the site, and to present it in different ways on different parts of the site. This may include editorial changes to text, image reformatting or resizing, addition of informative captions or comments, and changes to graphic design and other elements of the material. More complete details are available on the upload guidelines page.
Other people's material: Please respect other people's copyright when you post any material to the list or upload anything to the Yahoo Groups site: you should ensure that it is all right to use the material (i.e., you have permission to use it, or it consists of extracts that fall within the fair-use guidelines of copyright, or it is in the public domain). When considering whether to re-use any material posted to the list or uploaded to the Yahoo Groups site, it's always a good idea to check with the member who posted or uploaded the material whether there are any restrictions on or objections to the use of the material. For material on the IRFCA.org site, please contact webmaster@irfca.org for permission.
In order to reduce the possibility of spreading viruses and other objectionable material by e-mail, the IRFCA group is set up to strip out all e-mail attachments. Therefore, you cannot send any image files or documents as attachments to the mailing list. If you have images or other files there are a few different ways in which you can share them with other members.