Jacky:
 
I have an alternative suggestion: don't teach this
feature of LISTSERV.  As you and others have pointed
out, it does not provide a valid demographic survey.
Then teaching it to a geographic diverse community
seems like an exercise in futility.
 
I understand that host names are going to get
more "complicated" by virtue (of a proposed) expansion
of top level domains e.g. xxx.yyy.WWW plus lots more.
 
/Pete Weiss at Penn State