listname-request is a  very old Internet convention  for the standardized
mailbox to which  one should send all administrative requests.  It can be
argued  whether "subscribe  foobar"  is an  administrative  request or  a
command, but one thing that is clear is that "Hello, my name is Joe Smith
and  I work  at the  <....>  Thanks in  advance!" is  definitely a  valid
administrative  request,  and  deserves  a better  answer  than  "Unknown
command -  HELLO". Unfortunately, a  number of list managers  alias these
mailboxes to the command processor, sometimes with a filter that tries to
detect  English requests  and  pass  them to  the  list owner,  sometimes
without. LISTSERV is used in at  least 37 countries, with a corresponding
number of  natural languages, and  many LISTSERV users have  mail systems
which insert a letterhead-looking header at  the top of the mail message,
with the person's snail-mail address, phone number, and so on. This means
you can't base your filter just on the first line, if you want to support
people with  Macs or  All-in-One or  PROFS. On the  other hand,  a normal
letter  is not  unlikely to  contain something  that looks  like a  valid
command in the first  20 lines or so. I have  already proposed a separate
convention such  as listname-processor  or listname-manager,  which would
provide a standardized  way for users to send commands  without having to
know the name of the mailing  list manager while removing this ambiguity,
but of course all I can do is suggest.
 
  Eric