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A new mailing list for the network

Admin

The Response Diversity Network now has its own mailing list. Until now, the network’s contact list was a list of email addresses kept by a few key members, and only they could send messages to the membership. The new list changes that. Any subscriber can send one email to the list address, and it reaches everyone in the network.

Use the list to:

The list is hosted by the Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies (IEU) at the University of Zurich. The list owners can be reached at respdivnet-request@ieu.lists.uzh.ch.

Contents

What happens when you are subscribed

  • You will receive every message sent to the list, one email per message, unless you choose a digest (see below).
  • You can send a message to everyone on the list by emailing respdivnet@ieu.lists.uzh.ch from the address you subscribed with.
  • Messages from the list start their subject line with [respdivnet], so you can filter them easily.
  • Replies go only to the sender by default. To answer everyone, for example to share a useful reply or start a discussion, send your reply to respdivnet@ieu.lists.uzh.ch (or use “Reply all”).
  • Only subscribers can send to the list. Messages are not checked by a moderator before they go out, so please follow the code of conduct below.
  • Only subscribers can see information about the list, and only the list owners can see who is subscribed. Your email address is not published.

Please introduce yourself

Once you have joined, please send a short introduction to the list at respdivnet@ieu.lists.uzh.ch. It helps members find people with shared interests, and it is a good way to start conversations and collaborations across the network.

A few sentences are enough. You could include:

  • your name, role and institution;
  • your research interests, and how they connect to response diversity;
  • the systems, organisms or methods you work with;
  • what you hope to get from the network, or what you can offer to it.

Please use a subject line starting with “Introduction:”, so introductions are easy to find. Here is an example:

Subject: Introduction: Alex Example, freshwater ecology

Hello everyone,

I’m Alex, a postdoc at the University of Example. I study how communities of freshwater invertebrates respond to drought and heatwaves, and whether differences in species’ responses help stream ecosystems recover. I work mainly with field surveys and mesocosm experiments, and I’m increasingly interested in how to measure response diversity from long-term monitoring data.

I’d be happy to hear from anyone working on similar questions, or with stream monitoring data that might be useful for comparison.

Best wishes,
Alex

Code of conduct

The list works because everyone on it finds it useful. It reaches researchers and practitioners in many countries, disciplines and career stages, so please keep messages relevant, respectful and easy to act on. Messages are not moderated in advance; the list owners rely on everyone following these guidelines. We may change to a moderated list if the code of conduct is not followed.

Good things to send

  • A short introduction to yourself and your research when you join (see Please introduce yourself).
  • News of your own or others’ work related to response diversity: new papers, preprints, datasets, software and talks.
  • Job, PhD and postdoc adverts, and calls for papers, proposals or conference sessions.
  • Announcements of workshops, courses, seminars and conference sessions of interest to the network.
  • Requests for advice, data, collaborators, co-authors or reviewers.
  • Questions to the network. If you receive several answers, consider sending one summary to the list afterwards so everyone benefits.
  • Announcements from the Leadership Team about RDN activities.

Please do not send

  • Messages unrelated to response diversity, resilience or the work of the network.
  • Commercial advertising, product promotion or fundraising.
  • Political campaigning, petitions, chain letters or jokes.
  • Short replies such as “thanks” or “me too” to the whole list. A normal reply goes only to the sender, which is usually what you want.
  • More than one reminder about the same event or call.
  • Large attachments. Share a link instead, or keep attachments under about 2 MB.
  • Other people’s personal information, or anything shared with you in confidence.
  • Surveys, unless they relate to the network’s topics and, where needed, have ethics approval. Say so in the message.

How to write to the list

  • Use a clear, specific subject line, for example “Job: postdoc on drought resilience, Uppsala” or “Question: metrics of response diversity in microbial communities”.
  • Keep the message short. Put the key information and any deadline at the top.
  • Write in plain English, and remember that many readers are not native English speakers.
  • Sign with your name and affiliation.

Respect and privacy

  • Be courteous and constructive. Disagree with ideas, not people. Harassment, discrimination or personal attacks are never acceptable.
  • Do not use subscribers’ addresses for anything other than network-related contact, and do not add them to other lists.
  • Ask the author before forwarding a message from the list to people outside it.

If something goes wrong

If you see a message that breaks this code, please do not reply to the list. Contact the list owners at respdivnet-request@ieu.lists.uzh.ch. The owners may contact the sender, require that their future messages are approved before distribution, or, in serious or repeated cases, remove them from the list.

How to manage your subscription by email

You manage your subscription by sending short commands by email. There is no need to log in to the list’s website.

  1. Open a new email from the address you are (or want to be) subscribed with.
  2. Address it to sympa@ieu.lists.uzh.ch.
  3. Leave the subject blank.
  4. Put the appropriate command below in the message body, followed by QUIT on a separate line. QUIT tells Sympa to ignore any email signature.
  5. Send the email and follow any confirmation instructions in Sympa’s reply.
Important

Send these commands to sympa@ieu.lists.uzh.ch, not to respdivnet@ieu.lists.uzh.ch. The list address is only for messages you want to share with list members.

How to subscribe

(This paragraph only valid once we go live with the new membership system: If you used the new (from October 2026) membership form, you should already be subscribed (unless you clicked in the form to opt-out of the mailing list). If you didn’t already use the new membership form, please consider doing so.)

You can also subscribe yourself by email. Send this to sympa@ieu.lists.uzh.ch, with your own first and last name:

SUBSCRIBE respdivnet Firstname Lastname
QUIT

Sympa will email you to confirm that the request came from you. Reply as its message explains. A list owner then approves your subscription, and you will receive a welcome message.

How to unsubscribe

You can use your personal link to your membership form to unsubscribe from the list, or you can unsubscribe by email.

To unsubscribe with the form, go to your personal link (which you should have saved, but can otherwise get from the membership curator). You will be taken to your personal form; find the option to opt-out of the mailing list.

To leave the list with an email, send to sympa@ieu.lists.uzh.ch:

UNSUBSCRIBE respdivnet
QUIT

Sympa will ask you to confirm. The list owners are told when someone leaves. If you leave the network using the membership form, we will unsubscribe you from the list for you.

How to change your preferences

Subscribers cannot log in to the list’s web interface, so please change your preferences by email, using the steps above.

Receive a digest

To receive messages grouped together in a plain-text digest, send to sympa@ieu.lists.uzh.ch:

SET respdivnet DIGESTPLAIN
QUIT

Digests are sent once a day, at about 21:00 Zurich time, with up to 25 messages each. Individual subscribers cannot choose their own delivery time.

Receive each message individually

To receive individual messages again, send to sympa@ieu.lists.uzh.ch:

SET respdivnet MAIL
QUIT

Pause email delivery

To stop receiving messages while keeping your subscription, send to sympa@ieu.lists.uzh.ch:

SET respdivnet NOMAIL
QUIT

This can be useful while you are away. To restart delivery, send the MAIL or DIGESTPLAIN command above, depending on your preference.

Get help

To request a list of available email commands, send to sympa@ieu.lists.uzh.ch:

HELP
QUIT

If a command fails, check that you sent it from the email address subscribed to the list. Available options depend on the list’s settings. If you are still stuck, email the list owners at respdivnet-request@ieu.lists.uzh.ch.