Depending on the group, there might be different ways to get subscribed, but instructions for unsubscribing should be included as a footer on all list messages automatically.

To use the Web interface, you can connect to the group’s page (as described below) and click Subscribe or Unsubscribe. Some groups may not allow you to subscribe yourself, and others might have a way to subscribe via the group owner’s own Website.

You can also subscribe by email, by sending a blank message to the address groupname-subscribe@domain. You need to substitute the group’s name for “groupname”, and its domain for “domain”, which may be npogroups.org, groups.electricembers.net, or a custom domain like lists.your-domain.org. To unsubscribe, send instead to groupname-unsubscribe@domain, with the group’s name and domain substituted.

If you’re having trouble unsubscribing by Web or email because the Groups server thinks you’re not subscribed, it’s probably because the address you’re using is not actually the same one that’s on the list. Please see the FAQ about finding the subscribed address.

You can log in to a group’s website using your subscribed email address. Many groups are under http://npogroups.org or http://groups.electricembers.net, while others are found under their own custom domain names like http://lists.your-domain.org. Click “New Login” to have an initial password assigned. Once logged in you will be able to modify details about the way you are subscribed, view archives of list traffic, calendar, file share area, and subscriber list. Some of these things may be disallowed by the group owners.

If you are subscribed to a group that allows posting, you can simply email the group address to have your message distributed to all subscribers. You can use HTML formatting and it will be distributed as-is, and preserved in the archives. If you use Outlook, be sure the formatting is set to HTML and not to “Microsoft Rich text”, which is a Microsoft-only format that will be stripped from list messages. You can also log in to the group’s Web page and click Post to create your list message.

You can send attachments to an Groups list, subject to the following size limits which depend on the size of the list:

1-100 subscribers: 10MB (10485760 bytes)
101-500 subscribers: 5MB (5242880 bytes)
501-1500 subscribers: 2MB (2097152 bytes)
1501-5000 subscribers: 1MB (1048576 bytes)
5001+ subscribers: 500KB (524288 bytes)

You can change your subscription mode in various ways, including receiving daily digests instead of every message as it is sent, either by email commands or most easily from the Web interface. Connect to the list’s Web page and login with your subscribed address, and you will see the Subscriber Options link in the left menu. Click on that to see your subscriber settings, including delivery mode. You can choose MIME digest (all messages are added as in their original form as attachments), which is recommended if your email client can handle it, or text digest, which strips out all HTML and images and builds a text-only version of each message.

If you wish to use email commands instead of the Web, you can send an email to sympa@domain, with the group’s domain (npogroups.org, groups.electricembers.net, or a custom lists.your-domain.org) substituted for “domain”. The subject should contain a command of the form “set listname digest”, “set listname textdigest”, etc., with the group’s name substituted for “listname”.

Log in using the currently subscribed address. (If you don’t know the password and can no longer access email at that address, you will need to contact the group owners.) Click Preferences, enter the new email address, and click Submit. If you are a group owner or moderator, this will also update your owner/moderator address; however, if you are a listmaster, you will need to contact us to update that address separately.

Log in and click Subscriber Options to change: the name associated with your subscribed address; whether your address is hidden in the subscriber list; or your subscription mode (whether you want to receive a digest of list messages rather than each message individually, or if you don’t want to receive your own postings, or if you want to receive no list messages while remaining subscribed).

Some groups have a moderator, so when you post a message to the group, it must first be approved by the moderator. Some groups are like newsletters and only the moderators can post. Discussion groups allow any subscriber to post. A message you send might be rejected by the moderator for content reasons, or it might get be rejected automatically if it is too large or if the address you sent it from is not allowed to post. In the case of most automatic rejections, the rejection message itself should tell you the specific reason for this response.

You can email list owners directly by sending an email to groupname-request@domain, with the group’s domain (npogroups.org, groups.electricembers.net, or a custom lists.your-domain.org) substituted for “domain”. You can also just click the Contact Owners link on the group’s Web page.

All list messages are archived and searchable. You can view messages by month, either chronologically or by thread. From an archived message, you can resend it to yourself, reply to the sender, or reply to the whole list. Log in and click Archive.

To use your group’s calendar, log in and click Calendar.

There may by a Share Documents area depending on how the owners have configured the group. Uploading files here is often a better way to share them than attaching larger files to list messages.