Speaking of our breeds .....

by Dan Petty and Karen Lawrence

Reprinted with permission, Cat Fanciers' Almanac, April 1997

Pedigrees .... they are the basis of our registering body and our breeding programs. Sometimes, they are even the bane of our existence - especially when we are unable to fill in a specific missing link!

We discussed pedigree programs back in November and December of last year, and if you have started a pedigree database, you will invariably run into dead ends. Help may be on the way for some of you!

Researching pedigrees, often referred to as line chasing, has become one of the major assets of being on the Internet and having E-mail capability. Groups of people, with a common interest in a breed, are getting together and starting breed specific mailing lists to discuss their breed and help one another with pedigree research. Here, you can feel free to discuss breed specific problems, holes in your pedigree database, your latest show wins, etc.

Mailing lists are a wonderful way to communicate with people who have an interest similar to yours, but they can also have a tendency to make your E-mail inbox overfloweth. So, before we give you a list of mailing lists available, let's run through a few basic netiquette rules which apply to almost every mailing list.

• Introduce yourself. Send a message of introduction to the list, explaining about your cats, cattery and affiliation so that people know who you are.

• Remember, that you must be careful how you word your messages to the list. In E-mail one cannot interpret body language as easily as if it were a face-to-face conversation, so it's hard to tell by printed words if one is being sarcastic, or just joking (except for the occasional smiley or emoticon - see January 1997 article). Tone of "voice" in a message is always at the discretion of the reader, and can often be misinterpreted.

• Messages all in capital letters are considered to be "SHOUTED", so use caps for emphasis only and if you feel the need to really get your point across.

• Keep it short, and to the point. If you are answering a message from someone else, it is common courtesy to quote part of the previous message so that people can keep the "thread" of the conversation straight. However, it is also common courtesy to NOT repeat the whole message. Most of the E-mail programs available will allow you to crop the text you are quoting in your reply. Do so .... include just enough of the previous post so that the readers of the list will know what you are replying to. Also bear in mind that people pay for their Internet access, and down loading of long messages(sometimes over and over again) takes time and costs money.

• Watch who the message is addressed to. If you are replying to a message sent to a mailing list, either send a private response or send your response to the list. If replying to the list, there is no need to include a carbon copy to the original sender, as they will then get 2 copies of the message. Again, this costs money in download time.

• Keep the discussion on your breed list. There is no need to copy your message to more than one list. If the discussion is inappropriate for a breed specific list, then move it to a more general list. Avoid duplication of messages. There is nothing more annoying that paying to download E-mail, only to find that the majority of posts are duplicated on every list you subscribe to!

• Usually, you are free to post anything related to the breed of the specific mailing list. If a discussion drifts from the original topic, you might want to consider taking the discussion to private E-mail.

• Keep private messages PRIVATE. Never post a private message (or worse repost one without permission of the original sender) to a mailing list that may have hundreds of subscribers. This can prove embarrassing to both yourself, and the person who's private E-mail you have forwarded. BE VERY CAREFUL BEFORE YOU HIT THAT SEND KEY!

• Thank you messages and congratulation messages are best sent by private E-mail.

• Most importantly, do not send attached files (photos are usually especially large files) without the permission of the recipient and NEVER send one to a mailing list. People use various types of computers and computer programs, and attachments may not always be readable by all subscribers.

Breed Specific Mailing Lists

• Birman-Lovers
  Birman-Breeders
  Send to: majordomo@birman.com
  Message: subscribe listname

• Burmese
  Send to: listserv@cattery.net
  Message: subscribe burmese your name

• Devon
  Send to: listserv@cattery.net
  Message: subscribe devon your name

• Exotics
  Send to: majordomo@birman.com
  Message: subscribe exotics

• Folds-l
  Send to: majordomo@fanciers.com
  Message: subscribe folds-l
  Special: requires permission of list administrator to join

• Maine-Coons
  Send to: majordomo@fanciers.com
  Message: subscribe maine-coons
  Special: requires permission of list administrator to join

• Orientals
  Send to: oshsubs@ibm.net
  Subject line: SUBSCRIBE (Must be in caps)
  Message: Your name <your address> include brackets around address

• Persian-linechasers
  Send to: majordomo@fanciers.com
  Message: subscribe persian-linechasers

• Ragdolls
  Send to: majordomo@fanciers.com
  Message: subscribe ragdolls
  Special: requires permission of list administrator to join

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