ARATA

arata-ls

The ARATA List is provided to facilitate communication between members. Messages emailed to arata-ls will be automatically forwarded to every other member who is on the list.

About arata-ls

The listserver is an open, unmoderated web forum intended to facilitate discussion and exchanges of ideas. The value of "arata-ls" is the collective knowledge and experience of ARATA members, which can be shared to benefit people with disabilities. Anything to do with ARATA or the assistive technology field can be discussed freely, provided it is consistent with the mission and objectives of ARATA. For example, arata-ls is the place to:

  • Seek assistance from others regarding technology applications
  • Let members know about research projects you are undertaking
  • Share technology solutions
  • Publicise funding opportunities
  • Advertise job vacancies
  • Promote conferences, seminars
  • Tell others about the availability of interesting publications, new equipment, etc

Members have a duty to use the listserver responsibly and to avoid causing offense to other users or embarrassment to ARATA.

As a guideline, the following activities are considered to be inconsistent with the mission and objectives of ARATA, and therefore unsuitable uses of the listserver:

  • Requesting or offering advice pertaining to the medical or therapeutic treatment of an individual
  • Advertising of goods or services for sale, other than in direct response to a request for information

Members are expected to declare a commercial interest if recommending equipment or devices via the ARATA listserver, and are also expected to offer advice which is reasonably within the limits of their knowledge.

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Joining arata-ls

The arata-ls is for members of ARATA and similar organisations (e.g. RESNA and AATE). You can participate on the list by:

Please note, the arata-ls is:

  • Limited to one email per membership
  • Restricted to messages sent from the nominated email address
  • Reconciled each year one month after the deadline for membership renewals, and non-members unsubscribed

The arata-ls is administered as a member service and instructions to the list are therefore restricted to "unsubscribe" commands.

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Sending a message to the list

The listserver automatically dispatches your message to each subscriber on "arata-ls", and appends the tag [arata-ls] to the subject line of each message for easy identification.

To send a message to the list:

  • Keep formatting simple - formatted messages and/or email signatures sent in styled or html markup can overly complicate a message and mess up screen reading software
  • Address your email to: aratamembers@arata.org.au
  • Don't "Cc" list messages to other lists, people or organisations
  • Keep your comments brief and to the point - this is a large list
  • Keep your reply comments near the top of the message, and only quote essential parts of previous messages - this way there are less quote markings for others to wade through
  • Include your personal contact details in the message or signature of your email, so that members can reply to you directly if appropriate
  • Check message does not exceed 40,000 characters
  • Ensure that your email is being sent from the subscribed email address

How to send a Plain Text email

Messages to the arata-ls are preferred in plain text format - this involves writing the email in text and sending it as plain text. The first part is straightforward, while the second part depends on the preferences set up in your email program.

The following websites provide tips on how to do this:

If you normally send messages in HTML format, please avoide excessive formatting.

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Setting auto responders while on leave

If you use a holiday 'Vacation Message' or auto responder of any kind on your email program, please make sure you exclude all messages to the arata-ls from this response.

One solution is to ensure that the auto-responder only works for messages sent 'To' yourself and not to messages that are sent using 'CC' or 'BCC'. This will work for all list servers as the message is always sent 'BCC'.

If you are not sure how to do this within your email software, then the best alternative is to unsubscribe from the arata-ls and resubscribe when you get back.

Sending Attachments

The arata-ls does allow attachments, however not all recipients can open them. For security reasons, some large organisations also have a policy of sidelining or rejecting external emails with attachments, which means that not everyone on the list will receive your message.

It is preferable to:

  • Provide a short message with a web site link or contact email for further information, or
  • Include the information in the body of the email (provided it is not too long)

This approach allows people who are interested in more detail on a specific topic to follow it up individually, while:

  • Limiting the possibility of circulating viruses
  • Minimising problems for people experiencing slow connections
  • Providing members with a choice (rather than forcing everyone on the list to download the file, whether interested or not)
  • Ensuring that the content of messages are accessible to all members (eg some attachments, such as PDF files, may not be accessible to screen readers)

You must scan all attachments received from the ARATA listserver. ARATA cannot guarantee that attachments are clear of viruses or malicious material.

BOUNCED messages

To avoid spam postings and ensure that only messages from list members are distributed, the ARATA list is now restricted to member emails only. This means that messages MUST be sent from the subscribed email address to be accepted. Any postings from others are sent as BOUNCE messages to the list administrator only.

Sometimes certain words will cause a post to bounce, such as including "help", "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" in the subject line or body of the message. These words are reserved for admin requests and for security reasons such messages are sent to the list owner rather than the list. These sort of bounces are rare and you will be assisted in posting your message if they occur.

The listserve software will also not send messages of length greater than 40,000 characters. If you have a large message to communicate please consider summarising the content.

Excluding arata-ls from your email address book

Some viruses proliferate by sending a copy of the virus to every other address in your email address book. To help avoid this problem, list members must not include the arata-ls address in their address book. If you want to send a message, the details can always be found on the ARATA web site, or in a previous message.

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Organising your messages

When the list is active there can be lots of messages, and you may want to keep some of these for future reference.

  • It is useful to create a separate folder in your email program for all ARATA listserver posts, then to use the "Organise" or "Filter" functions to divert emails to this inbox. This management tool allows you to look through the emails at your leisure, all at the one time, which makes skimming the messages easier.
  • Alternatively you can set up a free email account just for ARATA (eg Hotmail or Yahoo). However, you need to be sure that the email you subscribed under is the one you use to post or reply to messages on the list

To assist members in identifying ARATA posts, all emails from the list begin with [arata-ls] in the subject line.

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Unsubscribing from the list

To unsubscribe from "arata-ls" Send an email message using the instructions provided when you joined, or visit the Listserver Service Site: http://arata.org.au/mailman/options/aratamembers_arata.org.au/

NB: To join the list again at a later date, you will need to contact the Membership Coordinator.

Changing your email contact

If your email address has changed you should contact the ARATA Membership Coordinator, membership@arata.org.au

You will need to provide details of both your old and new email address, which will then be updated in the membership database and the listserver.

Where to get help

For assistance with problems accessing or using arata-ls, contact our Secretariat, membership@arata.org.au or phone (03) 9372 7182