Home page: www.hippos.com
Contact Info
(All of the below
Topics will take you to a lower section of this page)
What is The Hippolotofus?
How do I join The Hippolotofus?
What is a Mailing List?
What is the purpose of our Mailing List?
How do I join the mailing list?
What should I do when I join?
How often should I email the group?
What other benefits does YahooGroups offer?
What are attachments?
What are the different "Delivery Options" for?
Is there any way to see old messages?
What is the Member's Area, and how do I get access?
How do I get a hippos.com email address?
History of The Hippolotofus and the Mailing List
Stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else
(clicking on these
topics will take you to a new page)
Guidelines to posting emails to the group
The Hippo Dictionary: Definitions, Acronyms, Abbreviations
and Initialisms
What is The Hippolotofus?
We are a fun loving group of hippo lovers & collectors from around the
world. We meet in a mailing list, online at YahooGroups. We have over 900 members (as of
January 2007).
We originally "met" on a hippos mailing list at OneList.com (which soon became egroups.com, which was then purchased by Yahoo), in early 1999. We came together because of our common interest in hippos. As we have grown, our activities have expanded to include an annual convention, numerous regional get-togethers, the Hippo Holiday Exchange, hippo projects and more.
Who are The Hippolotofus?
There are over 900 of us. We range in age from 5 to 95. We live in all
parts of the globe, and speak many languages. You must speak some
English to participate in our list, but English is not the native language for
many of our members. Some have been collecting for years, and have thousands of
hippos. Others may have just started, and only have a few. We are legal
assistants, work-at-home moms, business people, students, retired people,
engineers...we are hippo lovers!
How do I join The Hippolotofus?
Basically, when you join the mailing list, you have become a member of The
Hippolotofus. There is no charge to join the mailing list and The Hippolotofus.
What is a Mailing List?
A mailing list consists of people who have subscribed to an online email service. This is a group of friendly
people who share a common interest, in this case, their love of hippos. Once you've subscribed and you send
emails to the list, you are in effect posting messages to the entire group. As a member, you can set your mail
preferences to a) receive each individual mail that gets posted, b) to receive many emails in one email per
day--in digest form, or c) don't receive any emails--only view the email on the Website.
What is the purpose of our Mailing List?
The purpose of this list is to provide an open forum for the posting and discussion of
anything relating to hippos (imagine that!). Have a new hippo you
want to share with us? Just visit the zoo, and want to post pictures of your
hippos adventures? Or just looking for other hippo-maniacs to talk
to? The mailing list is a great place to look for these kinds of things. Also,
our conventions and get-togethers are planned through the mailing list. And many
projects devoted to helping hippos in the wild are discussed.
It's thru the mailing list that we plan activities. We had a convention last year, and are planning one for this year. We also help each other find hippos, and share discoveries.
Go ahead and give it a try...it's easy to unsubscribe if you don't like it. :-)
How do I join the Hippos Mailing
List?
To become a member of the list, you will have to set up a Yahoo ID (if you've never done that before), but it's free. To join the list:
You can choose to receive individual email messages for each message someone posts to the list, or you can choose to receive a "digest" once a day that contains all of the messages that were posted on the previous day, or you can choose to not receive any email and just read the messages via a web page.
For more information on these delivery options, see the
section below.
To send (submit) messages to the list, members just email the message to
hippos@yahoogroups.com.
To access the mailing list (and its other features) via the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hippos
You MUST have first JOINED the mailing list before you can submit messages yourself.
What should I do when I join?
You may want to "listen" for a day or two, to get familiar with the group and to see what types of messages
get sent around. Once you feel comfortable, it's time to send your introductory email to the group.
When sending your first email to the group, remember to keep it brief. The members will read it and will
welcome you into the group. In your email, you may want to say hello to the group, tell us where you're from,
how long you've been collecting hippos, how many you have, and so on. Feel free to tell us about your family,
or what you do, or how you got started... just about anything you want to share. We love to hear from
everyone!
We do ask that you post your introduction within the first week of joining. As you will read below, it’s not
necessary that you post messages all the time, but that first introductory email is important. It’s our only
chance to know who our fellow members are, and at least get to know you a little bit.
You may find it a little confusing at first because everyone knows each other and you don't, or there may
be references made to past events that you don't know about. Don't worry; that's natural when you first join
a group. Rest assured that within a short period of time, you will feel right at home! We love new members;
after all, each of us was new one time or another!
How often should I email the group?
As often as you like! It's not necessary that you participate extensively in
the mailing list, or in every conversation. Some people send lots of email every
day; others may only send 1 or 2 a week. Others hardly ever write--just when they
have something special to say.
Probably the best guide is, if you feel you have something useful to contribute, then please do. There are no hard and fast rules; whatever you are comfortable with.
What other benefits does YahooGroups
offer?
Several. They have a chat area, just for our group, open 24 hours. We are
able to run polls & surveys. And if you find other mailing lists that
interest you (they offer over 45,000 lists!), you can join them also. And all of
this is totally free!
Another big advantage to using YahooGroups for our email is their message archive system. They store our old messages (about the past year's worth) so you can refer back to them later. There's no need to use your own hard disk to store them. Once you are a member, you have access to these stored emails. You can search through them by keyword, or look at individual messages. Just go to the YahooGroups web site to view all of the past messages (you must be a member to view the archives).
What are attachments?
Attachments are pictures (or files) that have been "attached" to an email you
send the group. Some groups allow them, some don't. Our group does, as we like
to send hippo pictures to each other. If you are unsure how to send them, or
view them, just ask the group. We're happy to help!
You must receive the emails individually to see the attachments. If you are on "digest" mode, the attachments are stripped off. And while the Yahoo message archives store our old emails, they do not store attachments.
What are the different
"Delivery Options" for?
This is another tool from YahooGroups. You must choose between one of three
methods for receiving hippos email:
Individual Emails This means the group messages are delivered one at a time to your email inbox. This is the best option if you want to keep up on the latest posts immediately. Email attachments, if any, will also be sent directly to you. Messages typically show up anywhere from 5 minutes to 3 hours after they are sent, depending on various factors.
Daily Digest Messages are delivered in batches of 25 or daily, whichever comes sooner. In other words, instead of sending each email out one at a time, YahooGroups saves them up, and sends one big email, with 25 messages within it. This is the best option if you want to receive fewer mail messages and don't need up-to-the minute posts in your inbox. Attachments are not available in digests.
No Mail / Web Only This option puts email message delivery on hold, for example while you are on vacation. You still remain a member of our group, but you don’t receive any email directly. To read any emails, you go to the message archives at the YahooGroups Web site.
To set any of these options, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/mygroups and click on Edit Delivery Options. If you are a member of more than one group, YahooGroups allows you to set each group individually. You can change these options at any time, as often as you like. This is also where you can unsubscribe from this group, if you want.
Is there any way to see old messages?
Yes, every email from day one is stored at the YahooGroups website. Simply
go to
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hippos/messages
to read them. You must be a member to view archived messages.
Update Jan
2004: Yahoo has started to delete the oldest emails in the archives. It now
appears that about 2 years worth of emails are kept for you to peruse.
What is the Member's Area, and how do I get access?
We have a section of this website for member's use only. There are two
primary parts: the Info Page and the Bios. The Info Page is a table (chart)
listing many of our members, and some basic information about them. We can list
email addresses, AOL IM names, birthdays, hometowns and more. We can include as
much or as little as you want about yourself. The Info Page is a great way for
everyone to "remember" each other, which can be difficult in email
groups where everyone looks the same <g>!
The Bios (biographies) are another benefit of being a member. You can have a free web page of your own to tell us anything you want about yourself. Your family, your hippos, kids, pets, jobs, hobbies...whatever you want to include is up to you. You can even include pictures.
Both of these areas are updated through our group moderator Stuart. You don't have to know anything about web pages; it will all be done for you. For more info, email Stuart: stuart@hippos.com
These sections are available only to members, so your privacy is assured.
How do I get a
hippos.com email address?
Another benefit of being a member is you can have a hippos.com email
address of your own. For more info, click here.
History of The Hippolotofus and the Mailing List
Our group was started by Ann Warrick of the UK, in March 1999. We were
originally on the mailing lists at OneList. They were acquired by eGroups in 2000,
which was then acquired by Yahoo in early 2001. So we are now YahooGroups. We
started small, with less than 50 members that first year. As word spread, more
& more people joined. Most people's initial reaction was something like,
"I had no idea there were other hippo lovers out there!" In
July of that first year (1999), we gave ourselves a name. The Hippolotofus
began (thanks to Margaret McCormack for the winning name).
We put together a couple of projects that first year, including Hippo Mouse Pads (thank you Adelaide!) and T-shirts (thank you Cathy!). As the group increased in size, we decided to hold our first convention, which we called The Hippollennium. We held it in San Diego in May 2000, and had over 30 members there! We held a second convention (now called Reunions) in Orlando in October 2001, and have continued to hold reunions annually since. Our latest Reunion was in Philadelphia, in Sept 2006.
We continue to grow, with over 900 members as of January 2007! We still put together the occasional project--Hippo CDs, t-shirts, buttons and more. We even have special pewter hippos commissioned for each of our conventions.
Regional gatherings between Hippolotofus members have taken place in the past, and still continue to happen. It seems no hippo lover can go anywhere in the world without wanting to meet other group members who may live there. While many of our members live in the US, we are all over the world. There are many members from the UK, and several in Sweden, France, Mexico, Australia, Japan and more.
Stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else
Raising funds and Soliciting from fellow group members
added May 2001
Other Hippo groups
Selling items to each other
Contributors to this FAQ page
Contact info
Other Hippo groups
We have a sister group called "Friends of the Hippo". It is also
known as H.I.P.P.O., and SaveTheHippo.com . They have their own website at www.savethehippos.com
Their Mission Statement:
"Friends of the Hippo is committed to improving the living conditions of hippos in captivity and in the wild. Through communications with zoo personnel, animal protection agencies, wildlife conservation organizations, and members of the general public interested in the welfare of hippos, we aim to encourage people to support the betterment of the hippos' care in zoos, circuses, and other situations where the animals are kept. It is important to us that the hippos are kept safe and healthy, in a protected, natural environment, allowing them to flourish."
Please visit their website for more information, or to join this worthy group. Many of us are members of both groups.
Raising funds and Soliciting from fellow group members
Soliciting funds from fellow members is strongly discouraged because this group is about the fun aspects
of hippo collecting. It's not about asking people for money. This is not the right forum for collecting
funds especially if the solicitation is not related to helping hippos. If you think you have an exceptional
case that you think the group should hear about, please email me first at stuart@hippos.com
Sometimes we do help our approved sister group Save-The-Hippos with fundraising. If you want to raise
money for a hippo-related event, please contact Alice Egoyan at alice@savethehippos.com. Alice is the
president of the Save-The-Hippos email group, and most of our fundraising is coordinated through her group and
its board members.
On occasion, members may decide that it's a good idea to collect funds for a fellow member who may
have had a special life-event, or perhaps suffered an unfortunate accident or illness. We all care, and we do
want to share our thoughts, but this can be done in the form of emails posted to the group, not
by donating money. If the initiator feels strongly about starting a collection, then they should do so in
private and not through the group. The reason for this is that collections of this nature set a
precedent, and that means that every time someone gets ill, someone will have to arrange a collection.
It is far simpler to not add that level of complexity to our group. Again, if you have any questions or
concerns about this decision, please email me and we can discuss it further.
Selling items to each other
In the spirit of sharing hippo finds, be sure to let the group know if and when you've spotted a hippo, and most importantly, tell them WHERE you've spotted it. This way, individuals have the opportunity of going out and buying the hippo and thus save on shipping charges. Obviously, if the hippo find is not readily available in well known stores or Websites, offering to get these hippos for members is great.
Also, once the offer has been made, and people have replied, take it private b/c. No one wants to read emails full of "what's your address", "what colors do you have left", "have you shipped it yet", etc.
Contributors to this FAQ page
Thanks to the following people. Without their contributions, thoughts and ideas,
this page would not exist:
Stuart Feldman
Adelaide Prentice
Patti Riley
Debbie Grove
Cindy Dodds
Alice Egoyan
Jill O'Dwyer
Rebecca Cheek
Sue Shefman
Ramon Valencia
Holly Freitas
Lee Ann Orme
Raul Trejo
Nicole Marrane
Dana Clark
Contact Info
If you have ANY problems related to our group or the mailing
list, *please* do not post them to the list.
Please send email
to: stuart@hippos.com
Hippos group owner: Ann Warrick
Group Moderator: Stuart Feldman
Thanks!
