> > I agree with the comments below.  Lsoft should update the program by
> > coding the Primary Owner (first owner), as the one that approves any

I'm not sure. One of the beauties of LISTSERV is that more than one primary
listowner can be defined. Our house policy now requires a minimum two non-quiet
listowners, simply because having a single point of responsibility led to
difficulties in the past.

The correct way to deal with this or any disaster (hardware crash, rm -rf /,
aliens landing) is to make sure that one can recover.

Step 1: Keep up-to-date copies of the list header, archives, and subscriber
list. We make daily backups, but it worries me sometimes that people absolutely
*rely* on that one single backup system.

Step 2: Make sure the site maintainer knows who you are - even your name being
on the original "I would like a list" application will usually do. Something
that authenticates your voice over that of the troublemakers.

I fear that a software attempt to bodge one of the many problems that can be
fixed by these two steps may break more than it fixes. And then I'll just have
to insist that each list header has at least two "Mentor=" lines :-)

Regards,
Dave (another site maintainer :-) )

p.s. LSoft: Too late now for 1.8d I know, but suggestion for the future: the
ability to protect arbitrary lines in a list header from alteration by all
except site maintainers.

--
------------------------------- [log in to unmask]    Dave Wilson, HEA-NOC
HEAnet Ltd, Marine House, Clanwilliam Court, Dublin 2    ph.  +353-1-662-3412