ORDNEWS Listserv

ORDNEWS is a listserv discussion group that provides a forum for topics in the analysis of multivariate and spatial data. Topics on the list include ordination methods such as principal components analysis, correspondence analysis, and canonical techniques; spatial analysis and classification methods; and software for data analysis. Applications of these methods and tools are found in community, landscape, wildlife, and vegetation ecology; limnology; entomology; soil ecology; oceanography; biodiversity; conservation; and natural resource management; as well as in fields that are quite distinct from ecology, such as the social sciences.

Subscriptions are screened and processed several times a week, so please allow a few days for your subscription to take effect. Once you are subscribed, you will receive all messages posted to the list in the form of electronic mail. As a subscriber, you can respond to messages and post questions and comments of your own.

To adjust how you receive messages, see the FAQ Section below.

To subscribe:

Send an e-mail to: listserv@colostate.edu.

Do NOT include a subject in the message and as the ONLY text, type:

subscribe ordnews <your-name >

Replace <your-name> with your actual name. For example, Jane Doe would send the message:

subscribe ordnews Jane Doe

Enjoy! For more details, and other options for subscribing, see HOW TO SUBSCRIBE in the FAQ below.

ORDNEWS is administered on servers at Colorado State University by two co-owners:

Greg Hellyer, Environmental Scientist
USEPA - New England Regional Lab (NERL)
Ecosystem Assessment - Ecological Monitoring Team (ECA)
11 Technology Drive
North Chelmsford, MA 01863
www.epa.gov/region1/lab
hellyer.greg@epa.gov
617-918-8677 (Lab - Office)
617-918-8577 (Fax)

Steve Bousquin
Kissimmee River Restoration Division
South Florida Water Management District
West Palm Beach, FL
USA

sbousqu@sfwmd.gov

561-686-8800 x2719

ORDNEWS FAQs

Here are some answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the ORDNEWS list. This information is sent to the group periodically for the benefit of new subscribers.

Questions and comments can be sent to Greg Helyer at hellyer.greg@epa.gov
Please do not direct correspondence concerning ORDNEWS to Mike Palmer.

Topics included below are:

How to Post Messages
Listserv Commands
Archives
How to Subscribe
How to Unsubscribe

HOW TO POST MESSAGES TO ORDNEWS

To post to the ORDNEWS list, simply send your message as an email to ordnews@colostate.edu. You must be a subscriber to post messages, so send your messages from your subscription email address.

Note that the address above is different from the address you use to subscribe and to send server commands (which is listserv@colostate.edu).

Posters of inappropriate messages will be removed from the subscriber list immediately.

SOME SUGGESTIONS ON POSTING

Please use descriptive subject headers in your postings.
Use ORDNEWS to ask questions about the methods and tools of ordination, multivariate statistics, and spatial analysis; to announce publications, computer programs, and events of interest to members; to share your insights and ideas; and as a sounding board for feedback on new approaches to data analysis. While ORDNEWS has had an ecological focus since its inception, I encourage participation from researchers using similar methods in other fields. I also encourage diversification into new, but related, subject areas.
One of the primary functions of the group is to provide newcomers with access to information. Many members have been more than accommodating in helping new users get started, on both conceptual and technical issues.
Whether your postings are basic or advanced, one way of returning the favor of a sizable response to a posting of yours is to take the time to post to the group a summary of responses. You can do this by clipping from the original messages or by paraphrasing them, or a mixture of both. This activity is useful to the group because it compresses and organizes somewhat scattered information into a single message that is easily accessible in the archives - for posterity, if you will. Preface the headers of such postings with "Summary of [original topic header]" or something of the sort. **However, if some of the information you are reposting consists of mail directed personally to you (not addressed to the listserv), make sure you obtain the consent of the author before posting it to the listserv.**

LISTSERV COMMANDS

Here are some ways to fine-tune how and when you receive postings from ORDNEWS.
Any of the arguments below can be appended to the command:

set ordnews mail

which you should send from your subscription email address to: listproc@colostate.edu.
with nothing else in the body of the email, and nothing in the subject header. Commands should be sent from your subscription email address. You will receive an acknowledgment of the change.
You have the following main options:

ack
noack
digest
postpone

set ordnews mail ack

ACK causes the server to include you in the distribution of each message posted to the list, including your own postings. You will receive messages individually. This is the default mode that most of you are currently using .

set ordnews mail noack

NOACK causes the server to exclude you from distribution of your own messages to the list.

set ordnews mail digest

DIGEST causes you to receive distributions from the list as a single digest (including messages you sent to the list). You should get the digest, with the header "Ordnews Digest," around midnight (MST) each day. Note that you will not get a digest on days when there are no postings.

set ordnews mail postpone

POSTPONE causes the server to exclude you from all list distributions until you send another "set ordnews mail" command with one of the other arguments. This is a way to avoid your mailbox being full of mysterious acronyms when you return from a trip, without actually unsubscribing.

The commands override previous settings. For example, to turn off digest mode, send the command:

set ordnews mail ack

You can check your current settings by sending:

set ordnews

ORDNEWS ARCHIVES

ORDNEWS postings are archived at Colorado State University. To get these files, send the command:

index ordnews

as the ONLY text in a message with NO subject to listserv@colostate.edu.

After you send, the server will return the archive files available for ORDNEWS in a return email. For example, I sent the index command and got back the following:

Archive: ordnews (path: ordnews) -- Files:

log9803 (1 part, 117458 bytes) -- [ORDNEWS] How to subscribe

mbox.old (1 part, 576490 bytes) -- Old Mail Archive 1

log9804 (1 part, 322831 bytes) -- Re: [ORDNEWS] HTML and email

log9805 (1 part, 244198 bytes) -- Re: [ORDNEWS] Significance tests for ordination scores

Listed after the archive file name (e.g., log9803) and size is the subject header of the oldest message in that archive. The "mbox.old" archive is some salvaged material that was posted before we started the archive.

I can access the contents of the first archive file by sending the message:

get ordnews log9803

and again the contents will be returned in an email. All messages from one month are listed in one archive file. At the start of each month, a new archive file is started to hold that month's messages. You will receive large files in several parts.

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO ORDNEWS

Subscription Method 1:

Send an e-mail to: listserv@colostate.edu .

Do NOT include a subject in the message and as the ONLY text, type:
subscribe ordnews <your-name>

Replace <your-name> with your own name. For example, Jane Doe would send the message:

subscribe ordnews Jane Doe

You must provide your name.

Subscription Method 2:

A slightly more convenient way of subscribing is to go to http://www.stattransfer.com/lists.html. Find "Lists About Specific Techniques", find ORDNEWS, click on "Subscribe", then fill out the form. You will find at this site other lists of a quantitative/statistical nature to which you can subscribe. This is not an effort to advertise this company's products.

HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE

Note that if you want to temporarily suspend receipt of messages from ORDNEWS, you can use the postpone command (set ordnews mail postpone). If you would like to receive postings in a more manageable format than individual emails, try the digest option (set ordnews mail digest). For additional information on setting options, see the instructions above on "Listserv Commands"

Unsubscribe Method 1

Send email (from your subscription email address) to listproc@colostate.edu with either of the following requests:

signoff ORDNEWS
OR
unsubscribe ORDNEWS

Unsubscribe Method 2

Go to: http://www.stattransfer.com/lists.html. Find "Lists About Specific Techniques", find ORDNEWS, then click on "Unsubscribe".