[wplug] Availability of vanity WPLUG.ORG e-mail forwarding addresses for members

[Pat Barron]

We're pleased to announce the availability of vanity WPLUG.ORG e-mail 
forwarding addresses for WPLUG members!  This service is offered at no 
cost to all WPLUG members in good standing, and will provide you with a 
WPLUG.ORG e-mail alias (in the form "<yourname>@wplug.org") that people 
will be able to use to reach you no matter what e-mail service you 
happen to be using.  You can choose what address you want to have, and 
we can set your vanity e-mail forwarding address to forward to whatever 
other e-mail address you choose.

This is a membership benefit that was suggested in a response to the 
recent CRW survey.

This offer is subject to several conditions - the "TL;DR" summary of 
this is, "Use common sense" - but in particular:

1.  Your choice of e-mail alias is subject to availability - you may not 
choose as your alias the same name as a user account or alias currently 
active on the WPLUG.ORG server (meaning, accounts that can actually log 
into the server, not wiki usernames), someone else's WPLUG wiki username 
(it's perfectly fine to request your own wiki username as an e-mail 
alias), or a vanity alias currently in use by another member.  
Availability is strictly on a first-come, first-served basis.
2.  You may not choose an e-mail alias name that could cause confusion 
about who you are, or the nature of your affiliation with WPLUG.  For 
instance, you may not choose an alias such as "sysadmin at wplug.org", 
"wplug-leader at wplug.org", "barackobama at wplug.org", etc.
3.  Your chosen e-mail alias must be within the bounds of good taste and 
must not tend to reflect poorly on the image of WPLUG.  I will not 
provide any examples here of possible e-mail alias names that might 
violate this rule, but I'm sure you can think of some...
4.  The determination about whether a requested e-mail alias meets 
requirements 2 and 3 above shall be at WPLUG's sole discretion. WPLUG's 
determination on these matters is final.
5.  If you choose to use your WPLUG.ORG vanity e-mail alias as the 
"From:" address on e-mails you send, it is your responsibility to 
determine how to configure your e-mail client to do this.  WPLUG can not 
provide SMTP transport for your e-mail messages - in other words, you 
can not use the WPLUG.ORG server as your SMTP server - you must use your 
own SMTP server, or whatever SMTP server your service provider or ISP 
provides for you.   If the SMTP server you are using will not accept 
messages that use your WPLUG.ORG e-mail address as the sender address, 
WPLUG is unable to assist you in resolving this.
6.  Your WPLUG.ORG e-mail forwarding address does not include shell, 
IMAP, or POP access to the WPLUG server, or an actual mailbox on the 
server - this is a forwarding service only.
7.  The WPLUG.ORG e-mail server implements various anti-spam and 
security measures.  It is unlikely that these will affect your ability 
to have e-mail messages forwarded through the vanity e-mail alias 
program.  However, in the event that these measures do negatively impact 
your use of the service, it is unlikely that we will be able to change 
them to accommodate you.
8.  You may not use your WPLUG.ORG vanity e-mail alias, or the e-mail 
forwarding service, for unlawful activities, to disrupt anyone's ability 
to use their computers and/or networks, or for any other activities 
which may reflect poorly on the image of WPLUG. WPLUG's determination as 
to whether your use of the service meets the requirements of this 
provision is final.
9.  While we do not anticipate this occurring, WPLUG reserves the right 
to terminate any member's vanity e-mail forwarding address, or to 
terminate the entire vanity e-mail forwarding address offering, if it 
becomes disruptive to WPLUG's ability to operate or deliver services 
from the WPLUG server, or causes WPLUG to incur additional expenses.
10. Each member may have only one WPLUG.ORG vanity e-mail forwarding 
address.  You will be able to change the forwarding destination for your 
e-mail alias if you change e-mail providers in the future, but we 
discourage changing the actual alias  - these vanity aliases are 
intended to be a somewhat permanent address, and it is not our intent to 
provide "throwaway" e-mail addresses.  Requests to change an alias name 
will be evaluated on a case by case basis.
11. Your WPLUG vanity e-mail forwarding address is valid only while you 
are a member in good standing of WPLUG, and may be removed without 
further warning after a 30 day grace period if your WPLUG membership 
terminates for any reason.

If you are interested in having a WPLUG.ORG vanity e-mail forwarding 
address (or if you ever need to change the forwarding destination of an 
existing alias), please send an e-mail to "vanity-alias at wplug.org". 
Please include your name (so it may be checked against the WPLUG 
membership roster), what WPLUG.ORG e-mail address you desire, and what 
e-mail address you wish your messages to be forwarded to. This is a 
completely manual process at this time, so we ask for your patience in 
processing these requests.  In the future, we hope to implement a Member 
Information Portal that will (among other functions) allow members to 
request or change these e-mail forwarding aliases in an automated way.