> Can someone give me a good reason why *any* LISTSERV list should not > be SEND= PRIVATE? Depends on the list and who writes for it! I have an information & discussion pair of lists. A third list contains the combined postings of the first two. There are also 2 dozen local redistributions of the list. So postings to the information & discussion lists are *often* from non-subscribers. Also, nearly 1% of subscribers have addresses from which they cannot send mail. Because of this and because we validate commands with the OK procedure (*) (and some of my moderators command LISTSERV only via email), we have a separate (confidential) list, maintained by the moderators, just for the purpose of posting. For another list I own, SEND=PRIVATE works nicely. - ------ (*) If we were to use just SEND=PRIVATE, postings from the redistributions would just be rejected. We wish to moderate them, and so use SEND=Editor,Hold. Making the list be a secondary editor is a good solution for some, but this is awkward in one instance. We wish to go one step further in that we moderate "1st post". A subscriber gets a Default-Options=REVIEW and we reset it to NOREVIEW on 1st post. Let's say an article comes to the moderator and it is approved. We now want to treat this address as a subscriber (NOREVIEW). The moderator doesn't know whether the person is a new subscriber or a non-subscriber. (A new subscriber would get a SET listname NOREVIEW; a non-subscriber would get an ADD listname...). It's a hassle to do a QUERY and then wait for the reply. A *separate* confidential list, just for regulating posting privilege works nicely. This isn't confusing, is it? :-) Regards, Wayne T. Smith Systems Group -- CAPS internet: [log in to unmask] University of Maine System BITNET/CREN: WTS@MAINE