>My co-listowner and I are confused, and hope someone can enlighten
>us.  We are maintaining a number of lists, each with multiple topics.
>If we set a subscriber's topics to ALL on any given list, are we
>telling the list to send that subscriber every post that is sent to
>the list, or are we defining a new topic named ALL which will only
>receive posts directed to ALL:blahblahblah?
 
     ALL is a pseudo topic.  When you SET TOPICS: ALL, it is as
     if your turned on each existing topic.  Thus when a
     distribution has any or no topic, it is distributed to that
     user.
 
     Now if a poster sends a mail with Subject: ALL: blahdyblah
     it isn't clear to me whether that particular ALL: is the
     "OTHER" (undefined) pseudo topic or a shorthand notation for
     any of the predefined topics.  My guess is that it is the
     "OTHER."
 
 
>In the alternative, is there a way to set Default-Topics so that new
>subscribers are added without subscribing them to any topics?  I
>know it sounds wierd, but this option would be helpful for some
>scripting that my co-listowner is doing.
 
     Sure: * DEFAULT-TOPICS= NONE
 
/Pete Weiss at Penn State