 | Hermes II |
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), Hermes II
1. What is the difference between Hermes I and Hermes II?
Hermes I is more of an instant messaging system and is meant to be used for important messages which may also be urgent. Very few messages are expected to be for Hermes I so if in doubt ask first. Hermes II is a weekly distribution, much freer in its content.
More information for both programs on what is acceptable is available from the submit link on the menu on the left column.
2. How do I submit a message?
Before you submit you need to have your password to access the web intranet. All staff (with minor exceptions) and students can obtain a password on line. Follow the Intranet link from the menu (left column) and look for password issuer half way down the page. Your ID and password will also give you access to any protected pages on www.somis.dundee.ac.uk and most of the protected pages on www.dundee.ac.uk.
Once you have your password follow the Submit link from the same menu and choose Hermes II.
[NB. Your id will be the same as your email name but in lower case and and must have no separators between initials or between initials and surname. For example if your email name is a.n.other@dundee.ac.uk or ANOther@dundee.ac.uk then your ID will be another.]
If you have difficulties please email the Hermes Moderators.
3. How much text is permitted?
Hermes II has a total of four fields which can have text in them. They are:
- Subject line: 55 characters, try to make it as catchy as you can as this is what is intended to catch the readers' attention.
- Message text: 375 characters.
- Optional URL: A URL which may point to another page where there will be more information relevant to your message. Any text which is not a URL will be removed.
- Optional Web page: An unlimited text field where you can put any additional information relevant to your message. A web page will be created automatically.
4. When is the distribution of Hermes II?
Hermes II is distributed every weekend, normally every Friday evening. The intention is that it is available for the start of the week on Monday and always carries the date of the following Monday.
5. When can I submit a message?
You can submit a message any time, seven days a week. However by the close of the working day on Thursday your message must be submitted in order to catch next week's distribution. You may submit on Friday but there is no guarantee your message will be included. The program will tell you when the distribution has closed by which time it will be too late to include a message for that week.
6. Can I submit a message in advance?
If you want to submit a message in advance of an event, yes you can. In fact it is the recommended way to make one early and one late submission as long as there is a minimum gap of three to four weeks between them.
If you want to submit a message to be distributed at a later date, the answer is no. The selection and sorting of messages is semi-automated thus it will be easy for the moderators to select your message and distribute it with the next email and not with the intended later one. It is best practice to submit your message the week before it is meant to go out.
7. How often can I submit?
In the sections of "accommodation" and "small adverts" you can submit as often as you like as long as you are offering or asking for something that will eventually happen. For example, if you are offering a service you may not repeat messages every week but if you have an item for sale you can advertise it more often.
In all other sections, you can submit as often as you like as long as the messages are on different topics. If you want to submit the same message more than once, for example to announce an event and later on to send a reminder of the event, then it is permitted to do so as long as there is a three to four week gap between messages and not too many reminders.
For all sections, if there are repetitive messages we may ask you to reduce their number. Hermes is a free service and therefore we need to allow for all messages to gain some exposure.
8. What is opt out?
Opt out is allowed in order to comply with the 1998 Data Protection Act. Basically you can opt out for whatever reason and you will not be asked why. If you later on change your mind you can opt in again. The Opt out/in link is on the menu (left column).
9. How strict is the moderation?
The moderation is as minimalist as possible. There is a simple set of rules that you will find on a page if you follow the submit link from the menu (left column). Otherwise the sorting of messages or small changes in the content of messages is at the discretion of the moderators.
If for some reason a message is found to be unacceptable it will be sent back to you with an appropriate explanation, and where possible suggestions on how to change it to become acceptable.
10. Why does my message look different after distribution?
If your message looks different it is because it has been edited. We normally remove all new lines (carriage returns or line feeds) as we want the message to take as little vertical space as possible. If you are creating lists of items in your message bear in mind we will turn them into continues text. The intention is to produce a Hermes distribution which is easy to scan so readers can focus on any messages which are of interest to them.
11. What is the sort order of messages?
The sort order of messages is normally by group. That is:
- Messages for everyone;
- Messages for students;
- Messages for staff;
- Messages "in the name of science"
- Messages which are for accommodation and may be intended for staff, students or both.
- Messages which are small advertisements and may be intended for staff, students or both.
Within each group the sort order is at the discretion of the moderators. The general attempt is to bundle together similar items but vary the positioning of such items (eg. charity events will not always be at the top because they are for a good cause). The moderators will not enter in discussion relating to the sort order of particular messages. General suggestions though are always welcome.
[NB. We know, we heard it 1000 times before. Your message is the most important message ever ... well since the last time we had - yet again - the most important message ever].
12. What messages go on the web?
All messages get placed on the web. However, small advertisements will be placed on the intranet so as to protect user's personal details (eg. telephone numbers or email addresses, students who might be looking for someone to share their flat etc.). Therefore, smalls adverts will be accessible in a normal manner from within the campus but will require login (see the Intranet link on the menu on the left) if accessed from outside the campus.
Yes if you are prepared to take the consequences if the message is false, misleading or becomes subject to litigation. In most instances we would expect contact details to be those of staff or students.
For service type offerings, i.e. continuous adverts, adverts are limited to one every three months or so.
If your message needs contact details (e.g. email or telephone number), then you must enter your preferred contact details on the body of the message itself, for example email address and/or telephone number, on the body of the message itself. That is, contact details are part of the 375 characters of the message. We do not automatically include the email addresses we know of or personal details supplied by you for the use of the moderators.
We do not mind what style you use on your message, however, it is expected to be understood, not to have typing/spelling errors and to be in correct mixed case. That is, the message may not be in upper case or in just lower case. Messages get posted on the web and we expect them to reach a minimum level of literacy and netiquette. For example avoiding the use of spaces in order to insert more text will result in a message either being edited or being rejected.
The optional URL is meant to be used only for http connections and not for email addresses or as a means of increasing the 375 character text limit. For specific messages (e.g. an invitation to an event or a questionnaire) the url is expected to link to a page actually providing more information about the event. More general messages (e.g. an invitation to join a society) may link to a homepage. All URL links from a message must link to an Open and Accessible page which can be viewed by the various browsers and is accessible to users with disabilities.
You can create an optional web page for entering more text as a follow on from your basic 375 character message. The idea is to enter a short message to capture the readers' attention and then use the optional web page to provide more information or use the optional url to link to another page. Optional web pages are automatically created when Hermes is compiled.
More or less anything as long as there is no trading or profiteering involved. Goods (e.g. furniture, books, cars) or services (e.g. music tuition or foreign language lessons) are accepted. Specific exclusion:
- Cars must have a minimum of 4 months MOT.
From 31 March 2007 only a limited number of accommodation messages will be accepted. Hermes will not carry any messages which offer property for rent to staff or students, e.g. vacant flats, houses, rooms or requests for flatmates.
However, staff or students wanting accommodation, can place messages as often as necessary.
The University's Residences Office handles enquiries about living in the University's own Halls of Residence.
The University's Student Advisory Service,
and the Student's Association DUSA provide general support and advice. Information on HMO legislation. #
Update February 2012. DUSA has created a new site www.dusa.co.uk/studentpad where you can find properties but you also post messages if you are looking for flatmates etc.
Otherwise you can place messages on Hermes II asking for accommodation as often as you like (within reason).
21. Why am I not receiving Hermes?
On some occasions email data on SOMiS may not be up to date. Data are updated manually hence for a few days they may not include new staff or students; in some instances during the change of a contract of employment a person may be temporarily lost from the data on SOMiS; a user may have opted out of receiving Hermes II etc.
It is possible you may have unsubscribed.
However, the most common occurence is a user flagging Hermes as spam. In fact, using the Windows client of Groupwise it is too easy to flag any message as spam:
- The left pane of the windows client shows all your folders. There are two important folders next to each other:
- Junk Mail: Which in Groupwise terminology is the folder where it places your spam mail.
- Trash: Which is where it places messages marked for deletion (and which stay there till the folder is emptied).
- If you accidentaly or on purpose drag and drop messages in the Junk Mail folder and you answer positively the follow-on questions, then all subsequent email will be automatically treated as spam and be placed in the Junk Mail folder or will not be delivered at all.
If you are not receiving Hermes or any other email please check the settings of your Junk Mail folder. Below are explanations and the steps required:
- Right click on the Junk mail folder (left pane of the Windows Groupwise client)
- Select Junk Mail Handling ...
- Select the Junk List tab. Having both Addresses and Domains ticked (they are under the Junk List tab), examine the list of items and delete any entries which have "Hermes" or "somis.dundee.ac.uk" or "dundee.ac.uk" !!! in them.
- Go to the Block List tab, and repeat the above step.
If you have done the above steps and either found no reference to "Hermes" or you continue not to receive "Hermes", please inform the ICS-Helpdesk in the first instance.
Why doesn't Charles enter my messages?
Because he is an old so and so, too set in his ways to change now. No! In reality Hermes II is meant to be self-service. Any of three moderators can process messages for a distribution so the system does not depend on a single person to make it work. All moderation and processing is done from the same web interface that you use to enter a message, so it is not any easier for the moderators to do the job for you.
Whom can I contact about Hermes?
You can contact the Hermes Moderators. If you must telephone, please call the ICS-Helpdesk ext. 88000. Responses to telephone calls will be considerably slower.
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