I just registered with Compuserve to use an alphabetic alias
([log in to unmask]), and to use NEWMAIL.  Compuserve clearly said that
I was simply registering to save the name, and that the system would go
into effect in the future.  But then I discovered that the system is
already in effect (though I can't find any information that this is true on
Compuserve), and Compuserve now sends my mail from the HBograd address and
no longer from [log in to unmask]  But this has made it impossible
for me to send commands to any listservs I belong to, or to function as
listserv owner of my own list, since none of the listservs recognize me as
the sender.

If I had known about this in advance, I would have added my new userid as a
list owner on my listserv before I registered the userid with Compuserve.
(P.S. - but this would have been hard, since I didn't know what names were
available!).

Fortunately, I have a co-owner who could fix this situation for me, and I
knew the owners of my other lists and could ask them to unsubscribe me and
subscribe me again with the new alias.

I wanted to make this story public, because many of you may soon run into
Compuserve members whose listserv subscriptions suddenly and surprisingly
get messed up.  Apparently it works fine to unsubscribe them from the
numeric ID and subscribe them instead with their new alias.  But you have
to do it for them, because they can't quite do it themselves.

They won't feel safe unsubscribing before they register with Compuserve,
since Compuserve is telling them that the system is not yet in effect - and
they won't be able to unsubscribe once Compuserve has switched their mail
to the new alias!

Harriet Bograd, Attorney/Consultant <[log in to unmask]>
Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York
Coordinator, Cyber-Accountability Listserv (to join, e-mail [log in to unmask])
Web site: http://www.bway.net/~hbograd/cyb-acc.html