Good for you, Holly!
Well said!
Valentine
On May 8, 1997, at 09:44 AM, LISTSERV Administr wrote:
> >Our new listTool - Mailing List Subscription
> >Manager at http://www.lawguru.com/subscribe/listtool.html allows you to
> >easily
> >"subscribe", "unsubscribe" and send commands to over 450+ mailing lists
> >(including this mailing list) in categories such as computers, news,
> >business,
> >law, humor, sports, art, literature, music and more. You no longer have to
> >remember what command to send to which obscure email address to
> >"subscribe" to
> >or "unsubscribe" from a mailing list. After selecting the category, just
> >enter
> >your email address, select from the over 450+ different mailing lists
> >available,
> >pick the command, press the "Send" button and our server will do the rest.
> >Best
> >of all it is free. Let me know what you think or if you want to suggest a
> new
> >mailing list to add.
>
> Well, frankly, you probably won't like what I think, though I understand
> the intention behind what you've done here.
>
> There are several problems, not the least of which is verifying that
> someone is putting in a legitimate e-mail address and not just spoofing
> either someone else's address or a completely bogus address. Not all
> lists are set up as "Confirm" (even though they should be). How do you
> keep someone from just sitting there and subscribing to a zillion lists
> just because it's easy? Do you verify with the sites supporting the
> lists that you have available that they *want* you to provide this
> service for them? (I can tell you up front that we don't.) And there's
> always the down side that when it's easy for them to subscribe, they tend
> to do it even though they're only mildly interested or maybe just want to
> take it for a "test drive", and then the list owner(s), site admins and
> site support people end up with the headaches of someone who wants off,
> but doesn't remember where the site is where they "easily" subscribed",
> may not even know the actual list name or site where the list is located,
> whines that they're getting mail they didn't ask for (supposedly), etc.
>
> Since LISTSERV will send a subscription request to the right site if one
> happens to get the wrong one, I just don't see this as a necessary thing
> and think the potential for abuse far outweighs the positive side. I
> mean, really, how hard is it to type: SUB listname? And do we really
> want to make things so easy that nobody understands what goes on in the
> background at all? Why must we assume that everyone on the planet is a
> complete dunce, incompetent and incapable of learning? Should we not
> make people responsible for doing some things for themselves? (That
> question was phrased in lawyer-speak just for you... *grin*) In my case,
> our business is *educating* people, not just providing them with things
> that make life a mindless meandering. (But then again, it seems the page
> does exist primarily for lawyers, and maybe they need something easy...
> *GRIN*)
>
> (I'm sorry... just couldn't resist a couple lawyer barbs. Feel free to
> come back with nerd jokes. :-)
>
> -Holly
>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Valentine Riddell "Once you're real,
Orenda Healing International You can't become unreal
California, New Mexico, Sweden again. It lasts always."
Email: [log in to unmask] The Velveteen Rabbit
WWW: http://www.orenda-arts.org
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