On Wed, 18 Sep 1996, Winship wrote:
->I still advocate that subscribers should be told the drill is:
->
->sub listname Firstname Lastname
 
It would help if listserv itself standardized on some kind of name form
here.  Lets say the standard was 'FirstName LastName'.  Sometimes, we
get a subscriber who forgets to substitute their own name; they use,
literally, 'FirstName LastName'.  Ok, it sounds stupid, right? But they
might be new to the net.  Or, in my case, I manage a number of cancer
lists and those people are just plain sick. Very sick.  I can't write
to them and say, 'gee, you are really stupid for not understanding my
directions".
 
Listserv just lets the subscription just goes in.  I think listserv
ought to write back to them automatically, if they have used
literally 'FirstName LastName', and explain nicely that they
were supposed to substitute their real name.  They can then do that, or
write to the owners for help.  But if listserv did that, then the
subscriber lists would not have the occassional incorrect name field.
We require real names on all our subscriptions.  This option could be
keyword controlled, also.
 
kevin