GOOGLE GROUPS POLICY

 Scroll down through these guidelines and tips: 

You can visit the Hikanbyke Googlegroups website any time you like. You must be a member (subscriber) of the list before you can post a message. You should "register" yourself and give yourself a nickname so that everyone will recognize a post from you.  You can browse all the Hikanbyke messages in case you missed any of them.  Once registered, you can have some control over your preferences, e.g., you can elect to receive a daily "digest" of all posts from the previous day instead of individual emails.  As with most websites there are some advertisements, and this is the price we pay for having a free service.  Hikanbyke does not appear in Google's directory listing of groups.  This prevents Phishing to obtain our list name (and subsequent garbage messages). 

Receivers of your postings may not recognize who you are from your email address.  Therefore, you must sign each of your postings and provide some form of contact information as well (your name and email are fine, a phone # and/or address are optional).  Although there is a considerable amount of latitude given for the content of posts, the primary purpose is to notify members about impromptu or last-minute events and cancellations. 

Other valid uses might be: 

1. Posts about the well-being of members. 
2. News about non-Hikanbyke events that would be of interest to Hikanbyke members.
3. Wanted or for sale items that relate to the club's charter (activities related to hiking & biking).

Uses NOT appropriate:

1. Political, personal, off-color jokes, advertisements, and/or chain emails are NOT appropriate.  Posts of this type only aggravate members and defeat the list's purpose, so please be considerate. 
2. If you have any doubts, get a 2nd opinion from another member or one of the club coordinators before posting. 

In order to continue receiving Hikanbyke email notices, it is strongly recommended that you "train" your email to accept messages from Googlegroups.  We know this is difficult because the email will appear to arrive from the various Hikanbyke members who sent them, when in fact, the email really comes from Googlegroups.  You should "tell" your email that hikanbyke@googlegroups.com is NOT spam, and you can place the sender (hikanbyke@googlegroups.com) in your approved sender's list. Unfortunately, not all email providers and email programs work exactly in the same manner, but all of them have some provision for accomplishing this.  If you are in doubt, contact your email provider tech support and they can help you.

This is a self-managed list. That means you control your own subscription.  If you want to receive emails, you must subscribe yourself.  If you don't want to receive emails, you must un-subscribe yourself.  If you want to change your email address, you must perform BOTH operations (e.g., un-subscribe your old email address and subscribe with your new email address).  And you must do all of these from the email address that's in question.  Also remember that the Google list has nothing in common with the Hikanbyke membership database.  If you change your email address, please remember to notify the membership coordinator so we can keep our records updated, too.  We will send you a reminder when your membership is near expiring.   

When a new member subscribes to the list, they will be "moderated." This means that any post from that email address will be suspended until Diane Savard or Charlie Uhlman approves it.  This will be the case until your identity is determined (simple if you sign your email).  As long as the message is legitimate, we will approve it.  Once we see that the new member is a 'bona fide' Hikanbyke member who posts legitimate messages, the moderation restriction will be removed. This is in an effort to protect the list from spam and unscrupulous people.

When Google forwards a post to members, the subject line will always contain this: [Hikanbyke:123].  The number is a cumulative count of the posts so you can reference a particular post and find it quickly on the website.  If the subject line does not contain this identifier, then it is not a genuine post, so beware. 

Additionally, the following instructions will be repeated at the bottom of each post for your convenience:  

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Hikanbyke" group. 

To post to this group, send an email to:

     Hikanbyke@googlegroups.com. 

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:

     Hikanbyke-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

 For more options, visit this group at:

    http://groups.google.com/group/Hikanbyke 

Most problems will fall into these two categories:  1) You can't get subscribed, or 2) You no longer receive posts.  Both of these happen for the same reason:  Google sends a post to you and an error is returned by your email which results in Google "bouncing" you off the list.  Reactivating your email will not fix the problem and eventually you will get bounced off the list again.  It is best to attempt to fix the source of the problem and then re-activate your email.  You can also try Help at the Google website where they have some good suggestions.  And don't forget, you can always contact your email provider for help.  Once you think you have the problem addressed and need to be re-activated, send Diane Savard or Charlie Uhlman an email and we will get you changed to "active" again.