*** IRList MAILING LIST WELCOME AND FAQ *** Last updated 11/15/97 Welcome to IRList, the Indy Racing List! This list is intended to be a place for *friendly* discussion of the Indy Racing League and its teams and competitors. As this list grows, it may someday evolve into a new news group, but until then a mailing list will serve. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 1. Who is welcome to participate in the list? Anyone who is interested in IRL racing, including both "insiders" and plain old fans. A few insiders have been known to pop up now and then, and I'm aware that there are a few more who are "lurkers" (no, I won't say who they are). Don't let that intimidate you. 2. Is this an IRL-sanctioned activity? No, it's completely unofficial. The list is owned by this author, David K. Cornutt of Huntsville, AL, USA (cornutt@hiwaay.net), who has no connection with the IRL or any of its participants. 3. Well, then, is there an official IRL list? The IRL does not maintain any kind of a mailing list, as far as I know. They have a (graphics- and Java-intensive) official Web site at: http://www.indyracingleague.com/ It includes race results, current points standings, press releases, photos, and other goodies. Also on the same site are the home pages for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway events; to access those pages, add the directory "ims/" to the end of the URL above. 4. Are there any other IRL sites? The previously mentioned Usenet group rec.autos.sport.indy was chartered to be the place for Usenet discussion of Indycar-type racing, but there is now a dispute going on as to whether its charter includes discussion of IRL, CART, or both. (Part of the reason IRList exists is to get away from that mess.) It is possible that there may be either a split or a charter amendment to restrict one or the other. Here are a few commercial Web sites which cover the IRL: Speednet, a Web site operated by the Indianapolis _Star_ newspaper, has a very good site with race results, points standings, Indy historical info, and much original commentary. The IRL pages are at: http://www.starnews.com/speednet/irldir.html The iRACE Web site is operated by InterZine. Like Speednet, they cover all the major forms of racing. Some of their info is not kept as up to date as Speednet, but they have some interesting news and rumor columns, as well as reader chat rooms. Some of their pages are pretty graphics-intensive. IRL pages are at: http://www.irace.com/series/irl/irl.htm ESPN's SportsZone has some IRL info. It's generally not as informative or timely as the above (they concentrate mainly on stick-n-ball sports). Their auto racing pages (they're all mixed together) are at: http://espnet.sportszone.com I am in the process of bringing up my own IRL Web site. With any luck, it should be on line by 12/1/97. The address will be: http://fly.hiwaay.net/~cornutt/irlhome.html A number of IRL teams and drivers have their own web sites, and I'm working on compiling a list of these. Anyone who knows of any other IRL sites, commercial or non-commercial, write me and I'll include it. 5. How is this mailing list administered/operated? Subscribing: IRList operates on what's known as a "majordomo" server at the site of our gracious hosts, Catalpa Communications of Huntsville, AL, USA (http://www.catalpa.net). Unless you want to send special commands to the server, you don't need to worry about what a "majordomo" is; just accept that it automates the mailing list. Follow the instructions presented in this FAQ and you won't have any problems. (If you're really interested, there is a list of commands that you can send to the majordomo at the end of this file.) Presumably, if you're seeing this message, you've already subscribed to IRList, but if you haven't: To subscribe to IRList, mail a message to "majordomo@catalpa.net", containing the following text as the first line of the message: subscribe irlist If your mailer attaches a signature to your mailings, add a seond line that says "end" to your message so that majordomo won't try to process your signature. (Note: the server ignores the "Subject:" header of the message, so you don't need to put anything there.) Keep in mind that mail sent to the majordomo address is going to a computer program, not a person, and it isn't very smart about syntax variations, so follow these instructions exactly. 5a. OK, now I'm subscribed. So how do I actually send a message to the list? To post a message to IRList (assuming you have subscribed), mail it to "irlist@catalpa.net". It will automatically be forwarded to all the subscribers of the list. I do not pre-approve submissions; I see them when everyone else does. Catalpa's server is pretty fast, so generally a submitted message will be on its way within a few minutes of it being received at the server site. A special thanks to Mark Lin at Catalpa for making this deal happen for us! 6. Is this list moderated? Not in the sense of each posting having to be approved before it goes out. Submissions sent in by subscribers go directly out to the list as soon as the server receives them, without human intervention. However, as the list owner, I reserve the right to keep discussions in bounds and choke off inappropriate topics. This includes removing any subscriber who persists in violating the list's purpose. Spams to this list will be handled with *extreme* predjudice. 7. Which discussions are/aren't welcome on the list? The purpose of this list is to discuss Indy Racing League racing and related activities. As part of the historical legacy of the IRL, discussion of pre-1996 Indycar racing in general is welcome. (The reasoning behind that date will be explained in a moment.) Also welcome are discussion of the other activites of people who participate or might participate in the IRL, as long as it doesn't get too far afield. Discussions which are specifically *not* permitted include those along the lines of "which is better, CART or IRL". Technical and operational comparisons ore OK; however, these often tend to degenerate into flame wars, which is not what this list is about, so be careful. Remember that the purpose of this list is not to discuss CART or its participants; they have their own forums. One of the reasons that this list was formed was to get away from the massive volume of CART-vs.-IRL flamization going on in in the Usenet group. If you want to flame, go do it in r.a.s.i. Also not welcome are ad homineum attacks against individuals (list participants or otherwise). Criticism of a particular action that a racer, official, etc. performs are OK, but don't let these degenerate into open-ended flames. The types of all-condemming "IRL SUCKS" messages that certain individuals (they know who they are) frequently post to r.a.s.i are not welcome (the reason we're here is to get away from those), and anyone who persists in posting them here will be removed after a fair warning. Also, because of the agreement that the list has with our service provider, no commercial content can be permitted in this list. This means that product announcements and so forth should not be posted here. Private "for sale", "help wanted", and similar notices are OK as long as they are IRL-related. Also, the prohibition against commercial activity doesn't mean that sponsors can't be named and discussed; only actual advertising is prohibited. 8. So, is criticism of the IRL prohibited? Not at all. There is no rule that says this list has to be a Tony George love-fest. When the IRL needs criticism, criticize away. Just be reasonable about it. 9. Can people who belong to this list also participate in r.a.s.i? Certainly. We hold no predjudice against r.a.s.i (or any other racing newsgroup or list), but keep in mind that cross-posting between the two forums will seldom be appropriate. 10. What about purely informational posts (such as race results)? These are permitted. One might want to think twice before posting commonly available information, such as race results or points standings, since that information is available from other sources such as the IRL web site and the Usenet news group rec.autos.sport.info. (Then again, it's quite possible that some people don't have access to these sources.) And we really don't need ten people sending copies of the same information. (We might think about having one person designated to do this, to avoid duplicate posting.) Then again, there is other information that isn't as commonly available, such as lap split times, that the readers would probably appreciate. And if someone wants to do some stat analysis, or quote IRL rules, or offer some "inside" info, that would most definitely be welcome. Informational material accompanied by commentary is also appropriate. 11. Who owns the material in this list, and can material from this list be forwarded or reposted? This list should be considered to be private, outside of the circle of subscribers. If you want to repost elsewhere something that appears here, exercise courtesy and ask the author's permission first. Authors may attach copyright notices to their posts and place restrictions on redistribution, and the author's copyright should be respected. As the list moderator, I assert neither control over, nor responsibility for, the content of material posted here (other than that which I author myself). I do not assert any compliation copyright over the list itself. My purpose is simply to keep the discussion orderly and perform technical administrative details. I do not screen the material posted here, nor do I have any way of "cancelling" material that has already been transmitted to the list recipients. 12. Any other rules and regulations? That's pretty much it. Try to keep the cruder language to a minimum; we want to keep this list to about a "PG-13" rating. (Not for any legal reasons, but just as a matter of general courtesy; emotional, flaming, obscenity-filled material puts people off and really lowers their opinions of the author. Don't unduly embarass yourself. Remember the Usenet version of the old carpenter's adage: "Think twice, post once.") Remember ordinary e-mail netiquette; trim quoted material and don't use excessively long sigs. And, if you are trying to send a request to the majordomo server, please do remember that such should go to the "majordomo@catalpa.net" address; some people get annoyed when they see such requests appear on the list itself (and anyway, it won't do any good; the server doesn't monitor the "irlist" address for subscribe or unsubscribe requests). There is one other rule: It is mandatory that any list member who attends an IRL event in person must write a "Seen It Live" report, so that the rest of us can all be jealous. :-) 13. What do I do if I want to unsubscribe? Do what it says under question #5, except use "unsubscribe" in place of "subscribe". --- MAJORDOMO OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS Below are the commands that you can send to the Majordomo server that runs this list. If you want to use these commands, send them in the text of a message to "majordomo@catalpa.net". Otherwise, you can skip this section. In the description below items contained in []'s are optional. 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