BHQ-Admin Mailbag

Lately there have been some reoccurring themes among the messages sent to the bhq-admin@balloonhq.com mailbox. I have decided to devote my column this month to addressing these issues. From time to time I may do this, as I see fit. The following are the questions most often asked. I hope this attempt will help to lend clarity and allow the community at BalloonHQ to best utilize the vast resources available.

E-mail list address maintenance

If you wish to update the e-mail address at which you are subscribed to the e-mail lists, you must first remove your old address and subscribe at your new one. Also, when you wish to suspend e-mail from these lists for a period of time (such as when on vacation) you must remove yourself from the list(s) and then subscribe again when you return. The reason we request you make these changes yourself is that this is the best way for you to maintain control of what you want to be sent to your e-mail box. Sending e-mail to bhq-admin@balloonhq.com requesting that we make these changes will result in your receiving a reply from me instructing you to make the changes yourself.

Remember, there is a different address to send subscription and unsubscription requests for each of the e-mail lists. If you wish to subscribe to or remove yourself from a specific list, be sure to send the request to the correct address.

Artist directory versus e-mail lists

Please be aware that the information in the artist directory is not directly connected to the e-mail lists. Therefore, changing your address on one will not update the other. Each entry in the artist directory is the sole responsibility of the artist listed to maintain. BalloonHQ currently offers this service free of charge, but we are not able to maintain the directory with our current staff.

Membership versus e-mail list subscription and artist directory.

Membership to BalloonHQ is different from subscription to BalloonHQ e-mail lists or inclusion in the artist directory. Membership to BalloonHQ is a paid service that offers several additional benefits available only to members. Please see our member pages for more information about this valuable service.

Password requests.

Passwords are available upon entry in the artist directory. Some services at BalloonHQ are only available for those listed in the directory. Other services are for members only. In either case a password is required to access these services.

Photo Database Concerns - Why can't I upload files or access full search options?

Only members can upload files directly into the database and have access to full search capabilities at BalloonHQ. Those who wish to send photos for inclusion to our database may do so by e-mailing them to BalloonHQ. It may take a while for us to get to them.

HTML mail.

This issue comes up often. BalloonHQ does not allow HTML or Rich Text Format mail to be sent through the e-mail lists. The reason for this is that it is a very inefficient and costly method of sending mail. Many subscribers to the e-mail lists pay for their mailbox quota by the space it uses, and we believe it isn't fair to them to make them pay for extra quota when a plain text message will deliver the information just as well. For this reason we also do not allow attachments such as photos and other files to be sent through the lists either.

Those of you using AOL 6.0 (and possibly 7.0) have experienced this problem. This is because AOL has chosen to make HTML (or Rich Text) format the default for their e-mail services. Please be assured that we are not singling you out. We are simply trying to offer the best, most efficient service to the most people.

Quote reject.

Replies to list posts that contain a large amount of quoted material will be automatically rejected by the list. Receiving this message does not mean that you are not able to post to the lists. Every post to BalloonHQ is kept in the e-mail list database, and we do not wish that database to be needlessly redundant. Therefore, we require that you keep quoted material to a minimum. Sometimes a simple reference to the post you are replying to in the subject line of your e-mail is enough to guarantee others understand which thread you are referring to. At other times a small amount of quoted material will do. Simply hitting the "reply" button on your e-mail program may cause the entire message to be quoted.

Because of issues of unnecessary redundancy BalloonHQ also interprets replies stating simple agreement to an earlier post with no new subject matter as violations of the e-mail list regulations.

Copyrighted materials.

All material sent to BalloonHQ is copyright protected. Using materials found on BalloonHQ without permission is a violation of copyright laws.

The menu that is found along the left column of each page of the BalloonHQ website contains links to all resources that are offered here. Further explanation of these services can be found at these pages.