Subscribe to the Urticaria Email List

What Is the Email List?

The urticaria email list is hosted by Yahoo Groups. It's a large email group where you can find others who are dealing with chronic urticaria, give support, get answers to questions, etc.
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How Do I Subscribe?

To subscribe, send an email to urticaria-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
OR
go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/urticaria and follow the instructions to join the group. If you don't already have a Yahoo profile, you will be asked to create one.

Note: You do not need to use a Yahoo email address for the group, even though you get one when you create a profile. Just make sure you click the Alternate Email button and provide your regular email address.

Note: You can maintain your privacy by only filling in the required information in the Yahoo profile forms.
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How Does It Work?

When someone writes a message to the main group address, it is sent to all members. When you reply to a message, your reply also goes to all members. You can receive messages one of three ways:

  1. As individual emails
  2. As a daily digest of all messages in one large email
  3. Not sent as email, but available to read on the Yahoo Groups website.
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Suggestions

  1. The Yahoo Groups page contains a lot of confusing information, and the sign-in link is very small. Under the banner ad at the top of the page, if the line says "Welcome, guest" instead of "Welcome, (your user name)", you need to sign in.
  2. When you sign in, enter your user name and the password you created when you signed up. (Tip—Click the box that says "remember my id and password" so you won't have to sign in each time you visit.)
  3. Put the page in your Favorites or Bookmarks so that you don't need to navigate to it each time you look at the page.
  4. Once you are signed in, you have access to other features besides messages. The menu on the left side of the screen allows you to view pictures, look in the database, and participate in group polls.
  5. One of the most useful features is an archive of past messages. You can either browse through the archives in order, from most recent on back, or you can search for particular topics.
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How Do I Change My Member Status?

You may want to set your status to no emails, daily digest, or change your email address. Near the top of the Yahoo Groups page (right side), there is a clickable link, "Edit My Membership." This link takes you to a page that allows you to make changes to your membership settings. Remember to click "save changes" at the bottom of that page!

To unsubscribe, send a blank email to: urticaria-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com OR visit the website and unsubscribe by editing your membership.
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Bouncing

Periodically, your email address may "bounce" messages. The most common reason is that your email inbox is full; all messages sent to you will be returned to sender. In our case, this means the messages will be returned to the moderator. If this continues longer than a month, the moderator will delete you as a member, and you will have to rejoin the group to have access to the emails and the site.

To avoid being deleted from the group, if you are planning to be away from email for any length of time, please change your settings to 'No email'.
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Email Etiquette

Off-Topic and Personal Messages

When you send a message to the group that is off the topic of urticaria (and related health issues), please add "NCU" to the subject heading. With all the emails this group generates every day, this makes it easier for those who don't wish to read off-topic postings to bypass them.

Please keep personal messages back and forth to a minimum; it is easier for everyone if emails between friends are made privately.

We do have another group set up for those of you in the urticaria group who wish to email or chat on other topics. To join, go to http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/NCUchat/

Message Subjects

Please try to match the subject line of the message to the contents of the posting. This courtesy makes it easier to find postings in the archives. It is also helpful if you are specific in your subject line, such as "Dermagraphism and Benadryl" instead of "I have a question."

If you are replying to a specific person, it is also helpful if you place their name in the subject line. If you are responding to a posting that has someone's name already in the subject line, but the response is NOT directed to that person, please remove their name from the subject line.

Giant Messages

Sometimes emails can get extremely long if we don't all remove previous posting(s) from the body of the email. If you are replying to a specific part of someone's posting, it's fine to leave that, but if your message doesn't really pertain to what is already in that email, then just delete the previous stuff. This is especially important when replying to a digest email—the entire digest is sent again if you do not delete it.
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Who's In Charge?

The group is managed by five co-moderators: Julia, Jackie, Carol, Robynn, and Chris. The moderators are volunteers with busy lives who are dealing with similar health problems to everyone on the list. They are often seeking the same answers as other list members. They do more than a marvelous job, going above and beyond the call of normal email moderation. They share and comfort many of us when they themselves are sometimes ill.

They are not on the list in the role of medical professionals, so please do not ask them for medical advice.

The moderators' role is to keep the list generally on track and courteous, and also help with account issues—subscribe and unsubscribe, approving initial posts of new members, changing member settings. Please address list concerns with them offline by writing to icus@urticaria.co.uk.

If you wish to volunteer your services to ICUS, please let us know.
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