Hello,

I would like to announce the creation of Freedivelist, a mailing list specifically for freediving and spearfishing. I think this is very exciting news because it will is the first international forum for communication about our sport. I would like to invite you to subscribe to the list. To subscribe, send email to <listproc@colossus.net>; you must leave the subject line blank, then simply type the following in the message area <subscribe freedivelist>. That's all. The computer you are sending the message to will reply with a welcome message and more specific info about freedivelist.

Knowledge about the Internet and various functions varies greatly right now, so I will explain a tiny bit about listservs. If you know this stuff already, you can stop reading now... :^)

A listserv is a general mailing list on the Internet. It is always done by sending a letter to a computer somewhere that is programed to handle a listserv, in this case we are using colossus.net (a Sun server in Chicago). Our specific list, freedivelist, is just one of many listservs on that computer, and hundreds of thousands around the world. So when someone wants to subscribe, they have to send an email to that computer ("listproc@colossus.net"), and then specify what they want-- in this case to subscribe to the listserv "freedivelist". That's why you address the letter to a different name.

Now here's the clincher, when you send a letter to "freedivelist@colossus.net" it is automatically sent to every member of the list. The same happens when you reply to a message. Make sure you know what you're doing before you click SEND, because a lot of people are going to see your message!

If you want to unsubscribe, then once again you must send an email to the computer "listproc@colossus.net", keep the subject line blank, then write the command <unsubscribe freedivelist> and send it. The computer will handle everything. If you send the message to freedivelist, then everyone on the list will read it and know that you didn't read this explanation! :) On top of that, nothing will happen. The computer's job is just to basically distribute any email sent to a list to every member of that list. Pretty simple. We do all the rest.

I hope you'll subscribe, I think this will be an incredible opportunity for ongoing dialogue around the world regarding spearfishing and freediving.

Mark Barville http://freediver.net/ocean/tuna1.jpg