Introduction - what the group is about

The lightning photography mailing group is for all who are interested in lightning and/or lightning photography. It's for sharing photos, techniques, lightning web pages, and also for discussing with others everything related to lightning (like ball lightning, jets and sprites, etc.).

Also, if you're just new to lightning photography, feel free to join, introduce yourself and read or ask how other photographers photograph, so you learn a bit about this great hobby first, without having to find out by trial and error. The people on the group usually don't talk about how to photograph lightning by themselves, but if you ask you will receive response to your questions.

The mailing group is not moderated. This means that all messages need not first be approved by the list manager, before they are being sent to all subscribers. However, a new member is automatically put on moderated mode. This moderation is usually removed after the person has introduced him- or herself. The unmoderated mode also means that you are responsible for what you say. Needless to say, bad language and personal offenses to people in the group are not tolerated and those who attempt such practice risk moderation, removal by the moderators (unsubscription) or even banning.

The messages in English language, but keep in mind that this is an international group. Attachments to the emails are not allowed; these are automatically removed before the email is sent to the members. Photo sharing is done either on personal websites or on the shared files folder of the group website. The messages are plain text messages. This has proven to work well.

Subscription mode

You can subscribe in the normal way, so that every message submitted to the server is instantly resent to you, or you can subscribe in so-called digest mode. In digest mode all messages submitted to the lightning mailing list are sent to you once every day in one big email. This is useful if you don't want your mailbox littered with several messages every day (especially if you're a subscriber to several mailing lists), or you are limited to a slow internet connection. There is a third no-mail subscription mode, which is handy if you want to be a member of the group but don't want to get messages sent to you. You can still read all the posts on the group website.

The lightning mailing group is for everyone

The lightning mailing list is not just for professionals. Anyone interested in the subject is welcome, and it doesn't matter, for example, whether you use professional storm tracking devices and equipment, or just go out at night during lightning and photograph with an old manual camera, or just watch storms. Although any tech talk on the group may be discouraging at first, many members stay with the group. Also, it is perfectly fine to join the group and keep silent if you wish. Many people never post on the group.

Joining the mailing group

Go to the group signup page and enter your email address. A confirmation email will be sent to that address which you have to reply to. After that, you will receive a message telling that your subscription request has been forwarded to the list moderators. That request can take anywhere between a few minutes up to a few hours. Once admitted to the group, you will receive an automatic welcome message with the group policies, and general help on how to send messages to the group and use the group functions. You should not reply to this message, but keep it somewhere you can review it.

If you wish to unsubscribe, this process is very easy and fast. A note on concerns about junk mail: this group is well-protected against junk mail. Your email is only visible to group members (less than 300 people) and not to the outside world.