Please excuse the cross-posting, but I thought this might be of interest to
both list owner and site administrators.

http://news.com.com/2100-1038-5190826.html

This article discusses challenges faced by list owners and list subscribers in
light of escalating efforts to control unsolicited bulk email. The article
includes some historical background information about email and mailing lists.

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In 1986, a BITNET programmer in Paris named Eric Thomas wrote a tool called
Listserv that automated the administrator's task of managing subscriptions.
It also made message distribution more efficient, virtually eliminating the
crippling traffic jams. The tool was quickly adopted elsewhere, and the number
of e-mail lists on academic networks exploded.
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Paul Russell
Senior Systems Administrator
OIT Messaging Services Team
University of Notre Dame