Brenda Hutchins (AUTOCAT) and I have been discussing possible reasons some people can't get commands sent to listserv@uvmvm to work. As one possible explanation, I composed the following. I would appreciate comments and corrections before I post to AUTOCAT. Thanks. Douglas Winship Austin, Texas [log in to unmask] *************************************************************************** Dear AUTOCAT Folk; Some people have complained that they can't get the commands to work, yet they're sure they did everything correctly. The problem may be that the command was sent with the wrong name. Always keep in mind you are dealing with a computer program (Revised List Processor), not a human. The program has two names for e-mail purposes, listserv and autocat. What RLP does with the mail depends on which name you address it by. If it goes to listserv it *is* a command to be acted upon. If it goes to autocat it *is* mail to be distributed. That's what the program says and that's what it does. To RLP I am not Douglas Winship, nor is my wife Carol Winship. We are both [log in to unmask] . That is how RLP knows us because that is the subscription name. If I send a command from [log in to unmask], it will work (if I get the command right). However, if I send the command from [log in to unmask] I will get back the message I have no subscription and no action will be taken on the command. Anything that changes the "From" on my mail (such as going through a LAN mailer rather than the main frame mailer) will cause this. The command isn't comming from [log in to unmask] so it isn't valid. AUTOCAT is an open, unmoderated list. That means anyone can post messages, anyone can search the database, etc. You may do this from any address. However, to change the settings for your subscription, you *must*, so far as I know, write from the address you subscribed from. So far as RLP is concerned, that address *is* you. There is another problem I know of. Some of us work through rather freewheeling systems. At tenet (Texas Education Network) my mail can go out as [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask] tenet.edu or [log in to unmask] By the same token, my mail can be received by any of these. I have absolutely no control over which server sends my mail, nor whether the server name is added or not. This means that when I send a command to listserv concerning my sub- scription, I just have to pray that it is sent the same way my subscription was sent. If it doesn't work, I'll just keep trying. As a last resort I can write to Brenda and beg her to do it for me. If your system works like ours, you're in the same boat. Hope this helps. Douglas Winship Austin, Texas [log in to unmask]