>         I am troubled by your inconsiderately including lists
> without so much as a prior word to the listowners.
 
If you take a look at Yahoo, you'll see that this site is not unique.
There are several other sites that have this information. We have had
a LISTSERV WWW site up for over a year at
http://www.shelby.com/pub/shelby/listserv.html which was created by
hand. Our inability to adequately maintain it is what led us to
create http://tile.net/listserv/ (which is updated automatically)
 
The information you complain about is available to anyone who sends
"list global" to any listserv.  It is hardly private.
 
> For example, you give no description of my list, WMST-L, saying only
> that its name is WOMEN'S STUDIES LIST.
 
This is the description that is entered in your LISTSERV list file.
If it is innacurate, why not change your list description so that it
is accurate?
 
> In the meantime, their inappropriate messages will have disrupted
> the list and have caused me to spend time I don't have explaining
> the reasons for the list's focus.
 
Then you might consider making your list private or concealed, or
having a better description, such as:
 
"narrow, academic list for Women's Studies professors, researchers,
librarians, and program administrators."
 
>         Also, if people subscribe through the contorted gatewayed
> address you provide, they'll probably wind up in trouble when they
> try to post messages, especially since all the list's instructions
> tell them to use a different, more straightforward address.
 
As far as the "contorted gatewayed address" - I'm sorry about that,
but I get server addresses directly from Eric, and he substitutes
Internet address for bitnet addresses wherever possible.  In your
case, an Internet address must not be available to your bitnet host,
and hence Eric passes the bitnet address to me.  As he and I agreed,
we use listserv.net as a gateway for bitnet addresses, hence your
listserv address of [log in to unmask]  If the
technical problem of showing the Internet host name to whatever
mechanism Eric uses is fixed, then tile.net will show the Internet
host instead of the gatewayed bitnet address.
 
This is hardly a serious problem, since the user will receive a
"welcome" message when they join the list, which should tell them
where to send mail to the group, and the gateway should work fine
anyway.
 
> It doesn't need publicity in the world at large,
 
Then, again, I suggest you set your list to conceal.  It will then
not show up on "list global", "tile.net" or any of the other listserv
list indices.
 
John
 
John Buckman     [log in to unmask]     (301) 718-7840
Walter Shelby Group Ltd. - Internet Software Publishers
http://tile.net/   &  http://www.shelby.com/pub/shelby/