Release 1.7c will change the default mailing list behaviour to "Mail-via= DISTRIBUTE" rather than "Mail-via= Direct". There are two equally important reasons for this change: first, many lists are being operated without DISTRIBUTE because the owner doesn't know about the option. When DISTRIBUTE was first introduced, in 1986, it was logical to have lists operate as before by default, for compatibility. But now that the DISTRIBUTE system is well tested and so widely used, having lists waste bandwidth by default violates the principle of least surprise. The second reason is that the changes made in 1.7c no longer make "Mail-via= Direct" a more efficient distribution mechanism, unless the list is very small (thus saving the setup overhead of the DISTRIBUTE processor) or very large (DISTRIBUTE requires more virtual memory to accomplish the same thing). For an average list, cutting multiple copies for local users is now faster via the DISTRIBUTE code, which does not use a REXX loop and EXECIO for every copy. In addition, having two instances of the same function to maintain is a nuisance; some of the newer options (eg 'SET listname BSMTP') only work for mailing lists that use DISTRIBUTE, or are painfully supported through code that provides roughly but not exactly identical behaviour. This code may need to be modified "soon" to introduce support for mail with lines longer than 80 bytes, and I do not want to have two places to change. If and when this happens, or if the mailing list processor is converted to PREXX, the "Mail-via= Direct" code will be left out and this option will be ignored. If you have lists that *must not* operate with DISTRIBUTE, please change their list headers now to avoid disruption when installing 1.7c. In addition, please post a description of the reasons why you need the ability not to use DISTRIBUTE, so that I can try to find a workable arrangement for that problem. Eric