The Blake's 7 Mailing List FAQ

Basic Stuff

What is this Blake's 7?

A TV series that originally aired in the UK between 1978 and 1981. It's got roughly the special effects and sets of Doctor Who, but with much more interesting characters and scripts.

What is this list?

It's a mailing list about Blake's 7. It was started by me (Calle) in early November 1992, and has been going ever since.

Lately, it has also been about penguins. If you want to know why, ask Una.

How do I subscribe?

Point your webbrowser at http://lists.lysator.liu.se/mailman/listinfo/blakes7 and fill in the form.

If you for some reason can't use a browser, send a mail to blakes7-request@lysator.liu.se with a subject line saying "help". You will recieve a mail with further instructions.

How do I unsubscribe?

Use the web form at http://lists.lysator.liu.se/mailman/listinfo/blakes7.

Is there a digest version?

Yes. Digest or not digest is one of the choices available in your settings page at http://lists.lysator.liu.se/mailman/listinfo/blakes7.

How can I post from my work address?

The list is closed, so that only subscribers can post to it. This stops very nearly all spam to the list, which is good. It also means that you'll have to go to a bit of effort to be able to post from other addresses than the one you read the list from:

  1. Subscribe the second address.
  2. Set the "Disable mail delivery" option for the second address.

Is the list archived?

Yes, it is.

The old, ugly archive of all the digests can be found on Lysator's FTP site. Not very pretty, but it's there. This archive contains nearly everything posted to the list from its inception in November 1992 until the changeover to Mailman on 25 January 2001.

A newer, prettier archive can be found on my machine at work. It's not guaranteed to be up at any given time, since I may disable it temporarily if it takes resources I need more important things. This archive contains as close to everything ever posted to the list as it's possible to get.
At the new-style interface there is also a search engine, but it's not nearly as good as I want it.

Mailman has its own archive. It's only open to subscribers, and you can reach it on the usual URL.

Help! I've got a problem with the list!

For technical-type problems, contact me.

Netiquette

What can/should I post to the list?

Anything related to Blake's 7, but see next question.

What should I not post to the list?

There are sort of two answers to this question. The first is what I don't want you to post. Read those as things you must not post. They are, in falling order of severity:

The second are the kind of things other list members might complain about. There's pretty much just one of those, but it's a biggie:

How should I not post to the list?

Let me borrow the words from a member of the Freedom City list here:

> If you are replying to another post, please put your reply *after* the
> material you are replying to, and snip the irrelevant bits from the
> earlier post. If necessary, intersperse your reply with the points in
> the earlier post that you are replying to, again putting your response
> *after* the point you are replying to.

> Please do not simply add your response to the top of the post you are
> replying to. This makes it difficult to read, and after a few iterations
> it starts to cost money for those of us on metered access. I know
> Outlook Express and its kin leave the cursor in that lovely inviting
> blank line above the quoted material, but this is because Microsoft are
> a bunch of [deleted] lusers who think the entire world has unmetered isp
> and telco access, and unlimited mailspool space.

> Yes, my wrists hurt, and I *really* don't want to do unnecessary
> scrolling up and down. If material from the earlier post is relevant,
> than it needs to be where I can read it *before* I read the reply - the
> way question and answer columns in magazines do it. If it isn't
> relevant, then there's no need for it to be in the reply post in the
> first place. If it's at the footnote level of relevance, then and only
> then put it at the bottom of the post - *above* the sig separator,
> because some of us use email software that can be set to not display
> sigs, and/or when replying to a post will automatically trim the sigs
> from quoted material.

And I'd like to point out that the expletive that used to be where it says "[deleted]" was removed at the original poster's request. Personally, I feel that Microsoft has well deserved what she called them, and more.

Other Resources

Mailing lists

Space City

This was the original erotica-friendly mailing list set up by Susan-Beth. Real-life things forced her to close it down in the summer of 1999, but most active subscribers just moved over to...

Freedom City

...which is the current erotica-friendly B7 mailing list, founded by Tiger M in 1999. Membership is restricted to consenting adults. For more information, see their FAQ.

Instructions for subscribing and unsubscribing may be found at http://list.blakes-7.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedom-city

You can also use the above website to change your membership status or configuration, including setting digest-style delivery or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a holiday), and so on.

In addition to the website interfaces, you can also use email to make such changes. For more info, send a message to the '-request' address of the list (for example, mailman-request@list.blakes-7.org) containing just the word 'help' in the message body, and an email message will be sent to you with instructions.

If you have questions, problems, comments, etc, send them to mailman-owner@list.blakes-7.org.

Send messages you want to post to the list to freedom-city@list.blakes-7.org.

The Spin List

I forget exactly when this started and by who, but at the moment it's run by Ross Mallet. Its stated purpose is to be the set-theoretical complement to my list. In english, that means that everything is allowed, except for that which is allowed on my list. So this is where you take interesting but not B7-related threads, random flamage, ranting about politics and what have you. As long as it's not about a certain TV series, you are allowed.

Web Sites

(Note: Let me know of any of these stop working)

Judith Proctor's site

http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7. All the B7-related info you'll ever need, and then some.

Horizon

http://www.horizon.org.uk. The official B7 fan club.

Alicia Ann Fox's resources for fanfic writers

http://www.oddworldz.com/b7fanfiction/index.html Lots of interesting information for those writing B7 fanfic.

Lisa Williams' vidcaps

http://lcw.simplenet.com/b7lib.html Pictures captured from the series, indexed by episode or character.

Some sites about specific characters and actors

Steven Pacey (Tarrant)
http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/turnpike/91/spbio.htm
Travis 1
http://starriders.net/b7/
Travis 2
http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/5204/b7.html

Just plain strange

http://members.tripod.com/~Penny_Dreadful/.

Varies links from people who asked for them to be added


Calle Dybedahl
Last updated: Boomtime, the 70:th day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3170.