Miles Ahead: The Miles-L Listserv

There is an electronic mailing list devoted to Miles Davis. To subscribe, send e-mail to

listserv@nic.surfnet.nl

Leave the Subject: area blank. The body of the message should read

subscribe miles YourRealName

where YourRealName is your name (e.g. Stanley Crouch). The listserv program will take care of the rest.

Use this listserv@nic.surfnet.nl e-mail address whenever you want to interact with the listserv software, e.g. when you want to change your options, search the archives, etc.

To send a message to the list, use the address

miles@nic.surfnet.nl

Before posting a question, you should check the archive to see if it has been discussed recently, otherwise you're liable to get scolded by someone on the list. You can search the archives all the way back to February 1995 from the Miles-L listserv website:

http://listserv.surfnet.nl/archives/miles.html

Or you can do it the old fashioned way. When you subscribe, you're told that

Contributions sent to this list are automatically archived. You can get a list of the available archive files by sending an "INDEX miles" command to listserv@nic.surfnet.nl. You can then order these files with a "GET miles LOGxxxx" command, or using LISTSERV's database search facilities. Send an "INFO DATABASE" command for more information on the latter.

If you want to be removed from the list, send e-mail to listserv@nic.surfnet.nl. Leave the Subject: area blank. The body of the message should read:

unsubscribe miles

or

signoff miles

Do not send e-mail to miles@nic.surfnet.nl if you want to unsubscribe.

There are also a bunch of commands you can use to search the archives, get lists of e-mail addresses, etc. Use them by sending the commands to listserv@nic.surfnet.nl. Here are some of the more common ones:

INFO miles : Order documentation
LISTS <Detail Short Global> : Get a description of all LISTSERV lists
SUBscribe miles <full name> : Subscribe to the list
SIGNOFF miles : Sign off from the list
REView miles <options> : Review the list
QUERY miles : Query your subscription options
SET miles options : Update your subscription options
INDex <filelist_name> : Order a list of LISTSERV files
GET filename filetype : Order a file from LISTSERV
REGister full_name OFF : Tell LISTSERV about your name

There are more commands (AFD, FUI, PW, etc). Send an "INFO REFCARD" command for a comprehensive reference card, or just "INFO" for a list of available documentation files. For more information about using the Miles-L archives look here; for more about the commands available, look here.

Remember, you can also use a web interface to search the Miles-L archives back to February 1995. The URL is http://listserv.surfnet.nl/archives/miles.html.