On Sun, 15 Jul 2001 08:06:50 -0400, Fred Karp <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>I have had a request to arrange for the sender to appear to be the list,
>since people's email addresses often don't contain that person's name.

According to RFC822, the From: line should reflect the Author of the message.
Remember that LISTSERV is an agent program that merely facilitates the
redistribution of an author's message to a list of subscribers.  As such,
LISTSERV (or the list of subscribers symbolized by LISTNAME@server_name address)
can never itself be the author of such a message since LISTSERV is always an
Agent functioning on-behalf-of the true message Author.  Accordingly LISTSERV is
forbidden from modifing the From: line in any email message to a list.  There is
no way to make it do so.

Also, in accordance with RFC822, LISTSERV normally does identify itself as an
agent program by adding a Sender: line to the message headers.  This Sender:
header (not to be confused with the From: address) is correctly used to identify
any agent (person or program) who is acting on behalf of the message Author in
distributing the message.  You can set the value for the Sender: header line in
your list header.

Finally, remember that the To: address of a list message already reflects the
LISTNAME@server_name address.  If, as you suggest, the From: line were allowed
to be modified in this way as well, both the To: and the From: would be
identical.  Aside from appearing like some kinds of spam email, and risking
being blocked on that basis, such an address format would be a gross invitation
to mail loops and other kinds of mailing errors and problems, resulting in
significant amounts of non-delivery of the emails sent out.

For all of these reasons, it is neither possible nor desirable to do what you
are requesting.