Danger, sensitive subject.  As Judge Ito would say, take a deep breath
before reading...   ;-)
 
   One of the most disruptive changes made in LISTSERV lately has been
the default setting of FULLHDR.  I understand this had to be done to
preserve MIME headers but for most of my lists this is not something
that is being exploited and I'd like some control over it.  This is
especially a problem with moderated lists where entries might be
modified before being sent back (my NEW-LIST list is like that).
 
   I've set the Default-Options= on all my new lists to Shorthdr and
I've changed subscriptions on some of the local lists where people
just complained about all the headers and for entries which were
obviously causing problems.  I also routinely try to trim the headers
on NEW-LIST before resending them out to the list.  But with the
encoded options now it is more difficult to tell if any entries have
fullhdr specifically set or are just falling under the default.
 
   When this first changed I thought there was a way to set a list or
institutional default for the default setting.  In other words, if the
user has never set a header option, what will be used for distribution?
 
   I have a couple questions:
 
1.  What is a good setting for the number of hops allowed?  I think sendmail
    defaults to 17 these days.  That is usually ok unless the mail has been
    forwarded several times before distribution.
 
2.  Is there any way to add an option to LOCAL SYSVARS to make our local
    unspecified header default SHORTHDR?   If not, can that be added?
 
3.  Is there any way to add an option to a list to set the default delivery
    to SHORTHDR.  This is different from Default-Options becuase it would
    affect current subscribers with no hdr option set where Default-Options
    only affects NEW subscribers at the time they subscribe.
 
4.  Is there a way to tell whether a user has set a header option (or anything
    else for that matter) via the QUERY command?  I like the idea that LISTSERV
    shows the important options but I wish it would include an asterisk or
    some sort of flag if the option was taken as a default or not.
 
5.  Is the coding scheme for the options available?  FLAGS MEMO seems to be
    out of date...
 
6.  And as long as I'm whining I really do miss the date.
    I now have no way of telling if a person resubscribed after I had removed
    the entry or if I didn't get it right in the first place.  I realize the
    date is used in lots of ways but it was always helpful before (most of
    my lists don't use periodic reconfirmation).
 
    Just to balance things out - the spam detector and cooker has been the
best thing since - well, since the real spam was invented!  ;-)  It has
saved so many lists from postings from persistent pests lately...  ;-)
 
    Thanks!    Marty
 
-----------
Marty Hoag   [log in to unmask]            US Mail: NDSU ITS
ND Higher Education Computer Network                IACC Room 206
Phone: (701)-231-8639  Fax: (701)-231-8541          PO Box 5164
Bitnet: nu021172@NDSUVM1  (note 0=zero, 1=one)      Fargo, ND  58105
URL: http://toons.cc.ndsu.nodak.edu/~hoag/home.html