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British Interest Group of Wisconsin and Illinois

The BIGWILL online discussion list

If you came to this page just to be reminded of some useful e-mail addresses, here they are:
This page is still under construction.
If you detect errors, or feel that portions of this webpage are unclear, please let me know .

The BIGWILL online discussion list is set up as part of Yahoo! Groups. It operates under the name “willbig” – NOT “BIGWILL.” Participation is restricted to current BIGWILL members. All messages are seen by all participants (except for those who have chosen to get only “Special Notices”). The list is NOT actively moderated; i.e., messages are not screened before they are sent to the other list participants. If you participate in this list, you should be aware that all messages you send can be seen by ANYONE; the restriction to BIGWILL members only applies to SENDING messages.

You can participate in this discussion list in two different ways – you can send and view messages via any recent web browser, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari, or you can send and receive messages via regular e-mail. For BIGWILL members who have prior experience using a Yahoo! group, all you need to know to participate in this list is how to find the correct sign-up screen. To do this, go to <groups.yahoo.com> with your browser, then enter either “bigwill” or “wiilbig” (omitting the quote marks) into the Find a Yahoo! Group “box.” For those who want to participate via their web browser but have little or no prior experience using Yahoo! groups, detailed sign-up instructions follow. For those who want to participate via e-mail only, there are detailed sign-up instructions near the bottom of this web page.

Notes for those new to Yahoo! groups:
1) Go to <groups.yahoo.com> with your browser, then enter either “bigwill” or “wiilbig” (omitting the quote marks) into the Find a Yahoo! Group “box.” On the next web page you see, click on the name “wiilbig”on the left side of the page; on the next web page you see, click on the phrase “Sign Up” near to top of the page; You will next see a web page which looks like this (the exact screens you see may vary a bit, but the series shown below is typical):


  Sign-up screen #1



This is what the first Sign Up screen looks like before you begin to fill in the blanks. You need to sign up for a Yahoo! ID in order to get web browser access to the BIGWILL discussion list messages. Every Yahoo! ID must be unique, so if someone else has already chosen the ID you pick, you will have to choose a different ID. Establishing a Yahoo! ID gives you a Yahoo! e-mail account (whether you want it or not). The e-mail address for this account will be {YahooID}@yahoo.com (e.g., if the Yahoo! ID you choose is Geronimo, your Yahoo! e-mail account address will be geronimo@yahoo.com).

There is little to force you to answer the name, gender, birthday, or ZIP code questions truthfully – but if you give false answers, it is strongly suggested that you keep track of what answers you gave. Depending on what “Security question” you choose, you may need to also keep track of the correct answer to this question. Your answer to the “Birthday” question should be a real date at least eighteen years in the past. And, of course, you should remember the password you choose (including which letters are in upper-case)! Your Yahoo! ID is NOT case-sensitive; i.e., unlike your password, you can use any mixture of upper- and lower-case letters when you enter your Yahoo! ID. Note that Yahoo! will NEVER ask you to enter your password in an unsolicited e-mail message. If you are asked to provide your Yahoo! password in any context other than signing in to a Yahoo! website, do NOT provide it.

Providing an alternate Email (address) is not required, but it may be helpful at some future time. This is an e-mail address you are already using and which you are likely to have access to for a long time; it supposedly enables Yahoo! to get in touch with you in the event of problems with your account. It should be an address which does NOT block messages from unknown senders. Yahoo! will use it to send certain confirmation messages or to remind you of a forgotten password.

As best I can tell, answers to the questions asked here, other than Yahoo! ID, are never revealed to anyone else. (See information later in this web page about information you may provide in your Yahoo! profile.)
  Sign-up screen #2

Here is an example of a filled-in “first screen.”





Some of the questions may change immediately if your answer to “Preferred content” is something other than Yahoo! U.S.









If you have trouble with the “Verify Your Registration” question, click on the “More info” phrase next to it. Note that your response does not need to have the exact upper- and lower-case of the characters shown in the graphic.

You will not be able to proceed with Signing Up unless you agree to Yahoo!’s Terms of Service.
  Sign-up screen #3
If your responses to the questions on the first screen pass muster, you will see a screen like this. It indicates that you now have a Yahoo! ID, but NOT that you are a member yet of the willbig group.






Pay particular attention to the Your Marketing Preferences section. Click on “Edit Marketing Preferences” to be able to opt OUT of receiving lots of advertising e-mail messages.
  Sign-up screen #4






This is the set of “marketing preferences” you will have by default. If you click on “Clear All” (left side, half-way down the page) you should minimize the amount of unwanted e-mail you will get because you signed up with Yahoo! Frankly I get fewer than one such message per month (after cleared all of these “Special offer” selections).

Consider your response to the “How may we contact you? / Email” question. If you have an alternate e-mail account, it is probably better to select it rather than your <yahoo.com> address.
  Sign-up screen #5








This is what this screen should look like after clearing all the “Special offer” selections and changing the contact Email address.

















Be sure to click on “Save Changes” when you’re done.
  Sign-up screen #6



IF you registered an alternate e-mail address with Yahoo!, Yahoo! will send a message like this to that alternate address. (You may not receive the message if you block messages from unknown senders.) If you get a message like this, you should click on the “Important! Click here to activate your new account” phrase. I believe that clicking here has no effect on activating your Yahoo! account, but rather registers your alternate e-mail address as being valid.






Note that this message offers you another chance to alter your marketing preferences.
  Sign-up screen #7
If you click on the “Important! Click here to activate your new account” phrase in the e-mail message illustrated immediately above this, you should see a screen like this in your web browser.



Click on the “Continue to Yahoo!” phrase.
  Sign-up screen #8

If you clicked on the “Continue to Yahoo!” phrase in the screen shown immediately above, or if you clicked on “Join This Group!” on the introductory screen for the willbig group – and you are signed in as a Yahoo! user, you will see a screen like this. There are several actions you can take from this screen.

1) You CAN set up a profile, but you do not need to. Unlike the information you entered when you signed up for a Yahoo! ID, most of the information you enter in your “profile” will be visible to other Yahoo! members (not just members of the willbig group, but everyone with a Yahoo! ID). See the next two panels below for more details about profiles.

2) If you want to receive all list messages as e-mail, as well as being able to view the messages from a web browser, you can specify which e-mail address should get the messages. This address CAN be different from the one you specified earlier for receiving messages from the Yahoo! administrators, but there is seldom a reason to make it different.

3) You can send a comment which the list owner can read before considering your request to join the list. If you think the list owner might not recognize who you are by just seeing your e-mail address, put your real name in the comment field.

4) Most importanly, you can specify how you want to get the list messages. “Individual Email” works best for most people, as it allows for easy replies to individual messages. “Daily Digest” works better for some people; there is normally just one digest message sent per day (no daily digest is produced if there are no messages on a given day). This does not significantly reduce the size of the combined messages, but does reduce the number of messages. Use “Web Only” if you want to check periodically with your web browser for new messages, but to not receive any messages as e-mail (it is suggested you use this option if you block messages from unknown senders in your regular e-mail account).

5) You can choose between “Full-featured” and “Traditional” display of message in your web browser. At this time, I see no reason to not select “Full-featured.”
  Sign-up screen #12
This is the next screen you will see if you click on “Add new profile” on the “Join This Group” web page. This screen mostly offers explanations, but you must click on either “Edit”(very near the top of the screen) or “Create New Public Profile” in order to actually create a profile for others to see. After you have created/edited your profile, you may need to return to the <groups.yahoo.com> home page to continue.
  Sign-up screen #13

This is the Create/Edit Public Profile web page, before any of the questions have been answered.
  Sign-up screen #11
When you see this screen, you’re good to go!
Some technical details about E-MAIL messages sent to participants of this discussion list (for those who may care about such nitty-gritty details):


There have been visitors to this page since 21 February 2007.

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This site is maintained by Rollie Littlewood
This page was last modified on 21 May 2007

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