I read this list in DIGest mode so I'm a day late in replying. I can help a bit.
 
>Date:    Mon, 8 Apr 1996 14:33:06 -0600
>From:    "J. R. Lankford" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: TOPIC HELP!!!
>
>I just instituted topics on my list and they're not working.  What I
>intended was to use the "Other" topic for non-topic list mail, which will
>be most of it.  My list is: [log in to unmask]
>
>Here's what I did:
>
>First I set everyone who had the DIGEST option to MAIL.
 
OUCH! Did the subscribers have any say in this? I would be pretty upset if I
was forced to get email all day long when I had specifically asked to be
getting one message a day.
 
The comment in the List Owners Manual says "topics are active only when the
subscriber's subscription is set to MAIL." That does not mean a subscription
cannot be set to specific topics while it is in DIGest mode. Your steps
below could have been accomplished without this switch to MAIL.
 
>Then in the header I added:
>
>* Digest= No
>* Topics= OWLEX, SCLAB
>* Default-topics= Other
>
>Then I set everyone on the list to topic "other" as follows:
>   quiet set writelab topics: other for <userid>
>and got a report that it was done.
 
So, now everyone must receive all messages as they arrive throughout the day
that do not have a valid Topic on them AND they cannot reset their
subscriptions to DIGest. Are your subscribers schoolchildren?
 
>Then I started adding a few people to the topics with:
>   QUIET SET WRITELAB TOPICS: +OWLEX FOR <userid>
>   QUIET SET WRITELAB TOPICS: +SCLAB FOR <userid>
 
(FYI, those commands could have been combined to ... +OWLEX +SCLAB ... on
one line or ... +ALL ....) BTW, I believe in an early reply about Topics,
the chart I sent was incorrect if I noted that one whose subscription was
set to ALL would get messages that had no valid Topic on the Subject: line.
ALL does *not* include OTHER.
 
>and got a report that it was done. BUT... test messages labelled:
>  SCLAB TALK:  and  SCLAB:
>keep going to the whole list. So, far, I haven't gotten a report on who is
>getting the OWLEX topics.
 
By "labelled" I assume you mean "with a Subject: line of". Messages sent to
SCLAB TALK: would not be detected as intended for the SCLAB topic. Those
with SCLAB: (or S: or SC: etc) sure look like they should go to those with
their Topic set to SCLAB and I have no answer for that problem if you have
done all that you said.
 
>Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong?
 
The Topics feature works fine for me. Without access to your list, and if
you've taken the steps you noted and got the responses fom LISTSERV that you
say, I don't know what else to suggest.
 
>Jilla
>
>P.S.  By the way, I plan to handle the "set topic" commands myself until
>things are running smoothly.  I know members can do it themselves.
 
Is Send= Editor,Hold?
 
>------------------------------
>
>Date:    Mon, 8 Apr 1996 14:38:11 -0600
>From:    "J. R. Lankford" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: P.S. TO TOPIC HELP!!!
>
>Also, list mail from one person who I set to the SCLAB topic is suddenly
>coming back addressed to: owner-writelab, etc.  and being reported as a
>delivery error instead of going to the list.
>
>Help!
 
Do you have any reason to believe this is related to "Topics"?
 
Later.  Ed Paynter <[log in to unmask]>