Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 23:54:53 +1300
Reply-To: Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Subject: Re: Your message to vanagon-request@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
In-Reply-To: <vanagon%2004101801021830@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Content-type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=us-ascii
Why am I getting these?
>Mon, 18 Oct 2004 00:59:31
>
>Your message to vanagon-request@GERRY.VANAGON.COM has been forwarded to
>the "list owners" (the people who manage the vanagon list). If you wanted
>to reach a human being, you used the correct procedure and you can ignore
>the remainder of this message. If you were trying to send a command for
>the computer to execute, please read on.
>
>The vanagon list is managed by a ListServ server. ListServ commands
>should always be sent to the "ListServ" address, ie
>LISTSERV@GERRY.VANAGON.COM. ListServ never tries to process messages sent
>to the vanagon-request address; it simply forwards them to a human being,
>and acknowledges receipt with the present message.
>
>The "listname-request" convention originated on the Internet a long time
>ago. At the time, lists were always managed manually, and this address
>was defined as an alias for the person(s) in charge of the mailing list.
>You would write to the "listname-request" address to ask for information
>about the list, ask to be added to the list, make suggestions about the
>contents and policy, etc. Because this address was always a human being,
>people knew and expected to be talking to a human being, not to a
>computer. Unfortunately, some recent list management packages screen
>incoming messages to the "listname-request" address and attempt to
>determine whether they are requests to join or leave the list. They look
>for words such as "subscribe", "add", "leave", "off", and so on. If they
>decide your message is a request to join or leave the list, they update
>the list automatically; otherwise, they forward the message to the list
>owners. Naturally, this means that if you write to the list owners about
>someone else's unsuccessful attempts to leave the list, you stand good
>chances of being automatically removed from the list, whereas the list
>owners will never receive your message. No one really benefits from this.
>There is no reliable mechanism to contact a human being for assistance,
>and you can never be sure whether your request will be interpreted as a
>command or as a message to the list owners. This is why ListServ uses two
>separate addresses, one for the people in charge of the list and one for
>the computer that runs it. This way you always know what will happen,
>especially if you are writing in a language other than English.
>
>In any case, if your message was a ListServ command, you should now
>resend it to LISTSERV@GERRY.VANAGON.COM. The list owners know that you
>have received this message and may assume that you will resend the
>command on your own. You will find instructions for the most common
>administrative requests below.
>
>+---------------------+
>| TO LEAVE THE LIST |
>+---------------------+
>
>Write to LISTSERV@GERRY.VANAGON.COM and, in the text of your message (not
>the subject line), write: SIGNOFF vanagon
>
>+--------------------+
>| TO JOIN THE LIST |
>+--------------------+
>
>Write to LISTSERV@GERRY.VANAGON.COM and, in the text of your message (not
>the subject line), write: SUBSCRIBE vanagon
>
>+------------------------+
>| FOR MORE INFORMATION |
>+------------------------+
>
>Write to LISTSERV@GERRY.VANAGON.COM and, in the text of your message (not
>the subject line), write: "HELP" or "INFO" (without the quotes). HELP
>will give you a short help message and INFO a list of the documents you
>can order.
| 
