Basically, setting your H-AMSTDY subscription to TOPICs is good for people who just want to receive certain kinds of posts from a list rather than the whole nine yards. It's useful if your interests are limited or you don't have time for discussions.
TOPICs are recognized by keywords placed by the editor at the beginning of subject lines of messages. For example, you might receive a message from H-Amstdy with the subject line:
CFP: Texas ASA 1998 Conference (Austin TX 11/98)
The CFP placed at the beginning of this subject line indicates that the message is a general call for papers or contributions to a conference. You can, if you wish, set up your subscription to H-Amstdy so that you ONLY receive calls for papers from the list, or you can set it up to receive a combination of calls for papers and other TOPICs as defined below. The TOPICs option may thus be used as an alternative to receiving ALL the mail from H-Amstdy; it is basically a means to receive relevant announcements only from the list.
Currently there are 8 TOPICs options on H-Amstdy:
CFP: Calls for Papers, or for articles, chapters, panels, or for contributions to other monographs.
EXCH: The `classifieds' of H-Amstdy, this TOPIC allows subscribers to post requests for info about accommodation in other cities, advertise items for sale, apartments for rent, or to give notice of their search for rare editions of books.
FUND: Fellowships, Awards, Grants and Prizes relevant to American Studies and related fields.
INFO: Internet-related information--news about H-Amstdy net resources, other net resources, the Crossroads site, web info, tech tools for humanists, etc.
INQ: Subscribers set to the INQ option will be notified of the FIRST time a new query makes its debut on the list (so that if they're interested they can switch their mail option on again).
NEW: Subscribers set to the NEW option will be notified of the first time a new invitation to discuss an issue relevant to American Studies appears on the list.
NOTICE: Announcements of forthcoming conferences (not CFPs), positions available, events of interest to those in the field, etc.
TCH: This TOPIC keyword signifies posts related to specific issues in the teaching of American Studies.
Setting your MAIL to TOPICs is simple. Say you want to receive just calls for papers (CFP) from H-Amstdy:
send a message to listserv@h-net.msu.edu, leave your subject line blank, and include as the body of your text the following:
set h-amstdy topics cfp
To choose just, say, fellowship and teaching of American Studies info, send the following message to listserv@h-net.msu.edu:
set h-amstdy topics fund tch
If you are a program chair or a departmental secretary who has no time/interest in H-Amstdy discussions, an ideal setting would be:
set h-amstdy topics cfp exch fund info notice tch
This will provide you with all relevant and postable info without ever engaging your energies in H-Amstdy discussion threads.
If at any stage you get tired of TOPICS and want a piece of the action, you can set yourself back to mail by sending the following message to listserv@h-net.msu.edu:
set h-amstdy topics all
If you choose to try this out for a while and you have any difficulty setting your TOPIC options, let the editors know and we'll take care of it for you.
If you have further suggestions about things you would like TOPICs to incorporate, let us know and we'll add your ideas to our development process. H-Amstdy is its subscribers, so it's entirely in the interests of those on the list to make sure their concerns are expressed and heard.
