One obstacle for newbie list-owners is that the size of the reference
materials is intimidating.  It might take them the better part of a week,
or longer, to read and digest the List-owners' Manual and its related
documents.  Whereas if there were a quick start-up memo that they could
study, they could confidently be knowledgeable about basics and actually be
running their list within perhaps an hour or so.
 
There are some newbie *user* documents available for Listserv, and I'd like
to propose that there be a newbie list-owner's document which explains
only the bare rudiments, enough to get a new list-owner up and running
within the briefest time.  They can thereafter study the Listowners'
Manual to fully develop their skills.  (And getting initial, quick
familiarity through a newbie document will make the full manual less
intimidating when they go to study it.  This may not be obvious to
oldsters like me and others of us here, for whom the full manual is
piece-of-cake catalog of the familiar details of list management.)
 
I'll suggest the following outline for such a "list-owner's start-up kit":
 
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I. Master the basic commands available to ordinairy users (get LISTSERV MEMO)
such as SUB, UNSUB, SET, QUERY, etc.
 
II. Be able to alter the list header to configure your list the way you want
  A.  Obtain intitial password from Listserv maintainer and/or set and
      use your personal password. (Send PW ADD newpassword)
  B.  Use GET listname LIST (NOL HEADER  [and note why NOL and HEADER are
      important]
  C.  Edit the header keywords as needed, such as
         Owner=
         Subscription=
         Send=
         Editor=  [if needed]
         PW=  [good to change password from default setting]
      [explanation for all items above]
  D.  E-mail back the header with PUT listname PW=password
      Be careful to send no text (automatic signature?) other than the header
      you are PUTting
 
III.  Basic management
  A.  Use ADD and DEL for individual subscribers (altho encourage
      subscribers to use their own users' commands)
  B.  Can't find a subscriber's address?  Use QUERY listname FOR Joe*@foo.*
      or if you have version 1.8b, use SCAN Joe User
  C.  To set options for a user, do SET listname options FOR [log in to unmask]
 
IV.  Error management
  A.  What error notices are.  Why they will always be with us.
  B.  "User unknown" is often false; best to wait at least 4 days and
      hold off til after weekends; then DELete if permanent errors continue
 
V.  Further study
  A.  Study the Listowners Manual so that you can take advantage of all
      of the convenient and time-saving features of Listserv
  B.  How to get the manual via: e-mail; ftp; web.
 
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-- Roger Burns    [log in to unmask]