It seems to me... not that that means much.. a useful function might be the
ability to control a subscribers ability to modify their settings.

If I could set them nomail/digest/index etc.. and they could not change
it...

How many times have you encountered subscribers with limited mailboxes...
frequently not checking or going out of town.. set them nomail.. they come
back.. alter back to mail... catch 22..

Laziness on the part of posters would appear to me to be one of the most
challenging of duties a list owner addresses..

Quoting entire posts in response rather than editing for quality
discussion.. forwarding attachments rather than cutting and pasting germain
information.. well you all know...

Back yonder years.. when it was CompuServe or nothing.. when chat lines were
on modem user groups.. when everyone who accessed the information hiway was
a (dare I use the word) geek..

But now, we (or at least those of us running general newsgroups) must adapt
to circumstances and users that are not cognizant of netiquette or
protocol..

For my nickel.. we need some new tools..

Bill Salmon