What to do when you've missed a digest (or two, or three).

Send an email to listproc@usc.edu with the following line in the BODY of the message.  Whatever is in the SUBJECT line will be ignored so you might as well just leave it blank.

INDEX TWINS-L

In a few minutes you should get an email that looks like the following:
 

From: listproc@usc.edu
Sent: <The date and time it was sent>
To: <Your email address>
Subject: INDEX twins-l
 

Archive: twins-l (path: twins-l) -- Files:
  log9705 (1 part, 783406 bytes) -- Re:  Husband Leaving
  log9705d (1 part, 141915 bytes) -- TWINS-L digest 21
  < about 100 lines removed for brevity>
  log9901e (1 part, 536177 bytes) -- TWINS-L digest 798
  log9901f (1 part, 33412 bytes) -- TWINS-L digest 811
  log9902a (1 part, 549134 bytes) -- TWINS-L digest 812
  log9902b (1 part, 618477 bytes) -- TWINS-L digest 825
  log9902c (1 part, 608855 bytes) -- TWINS-L digest 840
  log9902d (1 part, 66712 bytes) -- TWINS-L digest 854

The listproc server archives the list into a single file....while that file may only contain the digest you're looking for, it very likely will also contain digests that you already have!  There is, unfortunately, no way to get around this.
 

OK, already! How do I get the digest?

The best way to illlustrate this is with an example.  Let's assume that for whatever reason, you've missed Digests 832 and 837.  By looking at the INDEX message the listproc so nicely sent us, we see that the file called log9902b starts with Digest 825.  The next file, called log9902c, starts with Digest 840.  We can figure out from this that 832 and 837 are both in the same file, log9902b.  Now that we know this, how do we get it?  Simple!  We politely ask listproc to mail it to us.

Compose a new message to listproc@usc.edu with the following line in the BODY of the message:

GET TWINS-L log9902b

In a couple minutes the archive file will be mailed to your address.
 

But the digests I want aren't in the same file!

Good point.  This means we need another example.
Let's assume that you need to get Digests 839 and 841.  Looking back at the INDEX message, we see that we are going to need both the file called log9902b and the file called log9902c to get both of these digests.  We can ask listproc to mail more than one archive to us.

Compose a new message to listproc@usc.edu with the following 2 lines in the BODY of the message:

GET TWINS-L log9902b
GET TWINS-L log9902c

In a couple minutes the archive files will be mailed to your address.  They will arrive in 2 separate emails, as listproc interprets each command line as a separate request.  You can request as many files as you like in one message to the listproc, just make sure to put each "GET" command on a separate line.  Due to the nature of internet mail, the files will not necessarily arrive in the same order as you requested them, or even all arrive on the same day.  The main reason for this is cosmic rays from outer space, as far as I can tell ;-).

Whoa! This thing is *HUGE*!!!

That's right!  The archives tend to be on the large side, and this can make it a little tough to find the one you're looking for.  The log file mentioned in the above example is over 600 KB in size, and contains almost 16000 lines of text(!)  If you have the time and patience, you can simply pagedown through the message until you see Digest 832 show up, but there are easier ways!   If your email reader supports it, you can do a "Find" within the message.  Most Microsoft Windows-based email reader programs support this; typically under the Edit menu, although yours may be different.
In the Find box, enter the text  Digest 832  and start the search.  Please note the space between the two words, this is IMPORTANT!  If you don't include the space then the find probably won't work for you.  Your email reader should jump down in the message to the top of Digest 832, and you can read it as usual.  Once you're done, repeat the search for  Digest 837  and you can read that one too.
 

Special note!

If you want to reply to a message contained in an archive file, please select the text you want to include in your reply, then copy and paste it into a new message.  Address the new message to twins-l@usc.edu so it goes to the list, or use the poster's email address if you want to respond privately.  Absolutely do NOT just hit the "Reply" button!  The reason for this is that the reply will go to the listproc server, not the list, and will get rejected anyway.  This wastes valuable computer time on the server, which is already busy enough.
If you readdress the reply to the twins-l address, make sure you're only including the relevant text from the original message.  Nobody on the list wants to receive hundreds or thousands of lines of email that they've ALREADY read.

I'm willing to help out if you're having problems.  It's probably best to send me an email directly rather than cluttering up the list.    You may not get an immediate response but I do check my email a couple times a day.  I'm not an expert on listprocs by any stretch of the imagination but I have used automated mailing systems for a number of years with a pretty good degree of success.