TidBITS Fileserver Pitfalls
No offense, but some of you have weird mailers. 🙂 There have been some requests to the TidBITS fileserver that it has been unable to respond to because the return address in the header is just too strange. I try to find a real address in all of those cases, but if you either don’t have a normal Internet style address or don’t list it in a .signature, I have no way of telling you that I can’t send you the file you requested.
So if you have requested a file recently but have not received it, it’s almost certainly because I can’t find a return path to mail it back. Right now I’m mainly feeling bad about Mike Sisson <engcon!gemini!sisson_md%brutus.decnet> since he sent me personal mail asking me to send him the ResEdit template for editing the Finder after the fileserver failed to return it. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to reply personally to him either, and I know there are a few of you in the same boat, thinking that I’m a slug for not sending these files as I said I would.
So to reiterate, if you wish to request a file from the TidBITS fileserver, send email to:
with a single keyword in the Subject: line. Good words to try initially include help and index. Don’t put anything else in the Subject: line, and don’t bother putting anything in the body of the letter other than your Internet style address in case I have to respond manually. The most common pitfalls are:
- Sending the request to my personal account.
- Not putting the keyword in the Subject: line.
- Not spelling the word "fileserver" correctly.
So if you watch out for those three, you’re likely to be able to use the fileserver successfully without me having to help you out manually.
My sincere apologies to those of you who have been unable to use the fileserver, and I hope it has proved useful to those that have used it successfully (over 1750 times since the end of November, I may add!)