How to use ISO, the email server for personals ads:
[First thing to note is that ISO is currently in alpha test, so be
prepared for it do almost anything. If it behaves in any way that you
didn't expect or don't understand, or if you have any suggestions for
improvements, send a note to  .]
ISO is an email server for personals ads. Out of its stash of
personals ads, it selects for you the ones that match you and your
wishes in four categories: age, sex, location, and ethnic group
(details below). You can read other people's messages, and, if you
want, you can provide ISO with a message of your own, which ISO will
forward to people who match you.
DISCLAIMER: As should be obvious to anyone, ISO is provided as a
public service for which you pay nothing, and no person or
organization makes any guarantee that it will work. We cannot
guarantee that the information people provide in their forms is
accurate, so you may get messages from people who don't meet your
specifications. In addition, no editorial control is provided over
the messages which pass through this system. If you use ISO you may
receive messages which you find offensive. You can avoid such
messages by not using this service.
To get started, clip off the form at the bottom of this message, fill
it out and send it in.
When you submit your entry, you will receive all the matching messages
currently on file. ISO then puts your form in the file, and as other
people send in forms, you will continue to get the messages of the
ones who match you.
If you do provide a message, note that _only_ your message is sent to
the people you match with; the other information you tell ISO is not
automatically included. Thus you will want your message to 1) include
all info about yourself that you want them to know and 2) provide some
way for them to get in touch with you, such as an email address or
phone number. You may want to make use of one of the anonymous email
services (for example, send an empty message to  or
 ). Due to storage constraints, your message must be
quite brief -- less than 512 characters. This is a little over six
lines, if you type all the way to the margin.
ISO remembers which people you have heard from, and normally it will
not send you messages from people you have already gotten a message
from, even if they change their message. If you prefer to get updated
messages, there is an option you can select in your form (see below)
that will cause you to get a message from each match each time they
update their form. Also, the "resend" command sends you the current
messages from all the people you match.
If you just want to receive other people's messages, but don't want
any message of your own sent to them, you can send in a form with no
message. If, on the other hand, you don't want to receive any
messages, there is an option for that on the form.
More details on the match categories:
Age: you specify your age, and a range of ages you are interested in.
Two people match only if the age of each lies within the desired range
of the other.
Sex: you specify your sex, and which sexes you are interested in.
Location: you specify where you are located, and the maximum distance
from your location you are willing to consider. Two people match if
each is within the maximum distance of the other. To specify your
location, you give your latitude and longitude. If you don't know
your latitude and longitude, and you live in the United States or
Canada, you can give your city and state (or province).
Ethnic group: You specify your ethnic group, and a list of ethnic
groups you are interested in. This category is a little tricky, since
there are at least thousands of ethnic groups in the world. We
recommend the following ethnic classifications, which are the ones
that turn up most commonly on alt.personals: Asian, Black, Hispanic,
Jewish, Other, White. If your ethnic group isn't adequately
represented by any of these groups, we suggest you specify that you
are "other", that you are looking for any ethnic group, and in your
message state what you are and what you're looking for.
You can change your entry at any time, to change your message or
anything else, by sending in a new form. Your entry will expire 90
days after the last time you update it. You can cancel it at any
time.
Commands:
Send mail to  . Put the command in the body of
the message. For the commands "help", "cancel", "ping", and "resend",
just the one word does the job. "form" is more complicated; see the
blank form with instructions at the end of this message.
help Sends this message.
cancel Cancels your entry.
resend Sends you messages from all matching people, even if you've
seen them before.
ping Sends a message confirming that you currently have a form on file.
form Adds or adjusts your entry. Use the blank form at the end of
this message.
Problems (and solutions!):
There are a few things people commonly have trouble with. We hope
eventually to make the server deal with these things, but in the
meantime, here are pitfalls to avoid.
1) When sending in a command, it has to be in the text of the message
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
To find out more about the anon service, send mail to  .
Due to the double-blind, any mail replies to this message will be anonymized,
and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned.
Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to  .
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