I'm a new member of this discussion group, but have been a co-owner
of a teacher's list for about 3 years now, so I have a lot of
hands-on experience with routine problems and have found some
non-elegant (but effective) solutions along the way.

My group is the ONLY group on our server which utilizes the "Topics"
option.  I implemented it to separate the "factions" of members who
had very different ideas of  what our group should become, and now
each "topical group" is slowly evolving into a functional sub-group,
within the list...... the best thing that could happen.

But coming to the main point (the one I put in the Subject line, I
mean), I believe we have found -- quite coincidentally -- an almost
foolproof virus defense, namely, the fact that NO virus is likely to
come to us with a valid prefix in the subject line.  This means the
server places it automatically in the "OTHER" category, which
currently ONLY list managers can receive.

As for the the defense of the digest recipients:  our digest is
apparently not enabled for attachments, and it converts them all into
many, many pages of computer code, which is annoying as hell to page
down through, but completely inert.

If anyone wants to know more, let me know.  I can send you more of
what I learned from working with the Topics option.


Dennis Hickman