A new header type, DUALHDR, has been added for people whose main activity is to post messages to 10 different lists demanding that everyone include a comprehensive signature file because, you see, the mail software on their PC doesn't let them see the headers, or at least they haven't figured how to do it yet, and we can't expect them to spend their precious time reading the manuals or getting decent software, can we? DUALHDR is identical to SHORTBSMTP, with the inclusion of a few RFC822 header fields in the message body where even state-of-the-art click-me mail software will show it. The extra header looks like this: ---------------------- Information from the mail header ----------------------- Sender: Test list <[log in to unmask]> Poster: John Smith <[log in to unmask]> Organization: University of XYZ, Florida Subject: This is a test ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A more useful new feature is list topics. It will be possible to define up to 11 "topics" for each mailing list, using the new "Topics=" list header keyword. If topics are defined for a list, users can select which topics they want to read using the SET command. Posters are supposed to specify the topic(s) of their message in the subject field, as in: Subject: Benchmarks,News: Benchmarks for XYZ now available! If no valid topic is found in the subject field, the reserved topic "Other" is used to decide which users want to see the message. This makes it possible to simply turn off the noise from posters who refuse to conform to the conventions for the subject field. An option to reject such messages with a list of valid topics would probably result in the offender posting to all defined topics, which can be done using the reserved topic name "All". A "Default-Topics=" list header keyword is available to define the initial topics for new subscribers. This is not a replacement for sub-lists. You still have a single list, which means a single archive (with all the messages); digests and indexes also carry all messages, and no I am not willing to consider making 4095 different types of indexes so Joe and Jack can have just the messages they wanted. There is no provision for the list owner to "allow" Joe to listen to topic X while Jack gets to hear about Y, which he can turn off when he wants, and Z, which he is forced to receive. Anyone who can post to the list can post to any topic. This is mostly useful for moderated lists and lists where there are clear divisions of topics and the audience is tame enough to adopt the convention. This new function is targeted at the type of lists for which having all messages in the archive is actually a good thing - it allows people who only have time to listen to topic X to occasionally search the archives for messages on other topics. It is also useful for your typical PD-software mailing list where most people are only interested in announcements of new releases or serious bug reports, generally coming from a development team which can be expected to adhere to the subject convention; the long-winded discussions take place in the "Other" topic. Eric