Natalie Maynor <[log in to unmask]>:
>Debate is continuing on ADS-L about the problems of posting from multiple
>addresses. I hate that all this is happening on the list full of people
>who don't know much about net life.
One of the "rules" on my lists is that logistic discussions of list
operations do not happen on the list (since they are off-topic) for
exactly the reasons you cite above. List members of most lists are
rarely Listserv-savvy and have very little reason to be; accordingly,
very little value is added in such a debate on the list. OTOH, it IS
important for the list owners to be in tune with what list members'
preferences are: I do this by encouraging such comments sent directly
to the -request address. For questions such as yours, I might send a
brief "questionnaire" pointing out the tradeoffs between being
spam-resistant and having Send=private and stating clearly that all
responses should be sent to -request and *NOT* to the entire list.
Then make the decision based on some weighted combination of the list
members' responses and your own inclinations.
As far as the original question was concerned, I set Send=Private
recently and this works quite well. I get maybe <1 message a week that
bounces because of non-matching addresses (out of 50-100), and that's
not too bad. Attached is a canned file I send to people when this
happens (typically, I delete the cases that clearly don't apply). Feel
free to customize and use it for your list.
BTW, I agree that it would be very nice for Listserv to do soft matches
(L-soft matches? :-) in certain cases. Multiple addresses with "nomail"
clutters the list, requires cleanup when the person gets off the list
(often forgetting to unsubscribe all the "nomail" addresses), makes it
harder to determine the true number of subscribers on the list, etc.
Case (4) in my list below is the important one to address (and the one
for which it would be reasonable that the list processor address), and the
following simple algorithm would do it (i.e., we aren't talking
complicated expert systems here) in all the cases I've seen on my lists:
"Ignore the first field after the @ as long as at least two field
remain in the FQDN."
This would be for permitting postings with Send=Private, and presumably
not for unsubscribes, or perhaps it would be a multi-level option, e.g.,
Smart-Match= Off | Send-Only | All
Shahrukh Merchant
[log in to unmask]
Here is my canned file--feel free to customize and use for your list:
================================================================
On 1 March 1996, the Tango-L list was restricted to receive mail only
from subscribers to the list. This was done mainly to prevent nuisance
mail, and not to restrict relevant articles such as yours. Your
subscription to the list is checked automatically by the list server,
which verifies that the address in the "From:" line in your mail matches
that under which you are subscribed.
Your mail (copy attached at end) was rejected by the list server for one
of the following reasons:
1. You are not subscribed to the list
SOLUTION: Subscribe to the list. If you truly do not wish to receive
mail from the list, but would like to post relevant articles, you can
achieve this by subscribing and then setting your options to "nomail".
Instructions for this are attached.
2. You subscribed to the list some time ago under an address that has
now changed even though e-mail sent to the old address continues to
reach you.
SOLUTION: Resubscribe under the new address. When the subscription has
been confirmed, unsubscribe the old address if you can (this requires
that you be able to send mail with the old address in the "From:" line).
If you cannot unsubscribe the old address yourself, send e-mail to
[log in to unmask] stating the specific address that you would
like removed, and the list administrator will do it manually.
3. You have several different accounts that you use for sending e-mail,
but have subscribed only one of them to the tango-L list.
SOLUTION: The preferred solution is to use only one account for sending
and receiving your list-related mail. If you really want to send e-mail
from multiple accounts, then you will need to subscribe them all to the
list, and set all but one of them to "nomail" so that you will receive
only one copy of mail messages. It is strongly recommended that you
subscribe only the minimal subset of addresses that you are really
likely to use. E.g.,
From your primary account (the one on which you receive mail), use:
subscribe tango-L Charles Doe
From all your other accounts, use:
subscribe tango-L Charles Doe
set tango-L nomail
(In the latter case, you will need to confirm your subscription first
before you can use the "set tango-L nomail" option in a separate message.)
4. You use several different workstations in your networked environment,
so the "From:" address generated in your mail is different, depending on
which machine you are logged on to.
SOLUTION: The best solution is to have your system administrator
configure your mailer so that it removes the machine-dependence in your
outgoing "From:" address. Since some adminstrators are unwilling or
unable to do this, alternatives are (a) to use the same machine to send
e-mail to the list as the one under which you subscribed, or (b) to
subscribe all the addresses that they may generate, and set all but one
to "nomail". E.g.:
From your primary account (the one on which you receive mail), use:
subscribe tango-L Charles Doe
From all your other accounts, use:
subscribe tango-L Charles Doe
set tango-L nomail
(In the latter case, you will need to confirm your subscription first
before you can use the "set tango-L nomail" option in a separate message.)
5. You are subscribed under a redistribution list local to your site
(which may be a local mailing list or a local newsgroup or bulletin
board), so your own address does not appear explicitly on the list.
SOLUTION: Subscribe yourself to the list separately. If you wish to
use the local redistribution or gateway to read the list mail, then set
your individual subscription to "nomail".
Information for subscribing to the Tango-L list and setting the "nomail"
option is attached, as is your original article. Please contact me if
you have any questions.
Shahrukh Merchant
"Tango-L" administrator
[log in to unmask]
================================================================
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBSCRIBING OR UNSUBSCRIBING TO TANGO-L
[Note that effective 17 Jan 95, the list name is tango-L (not tango);
otherwise, the tango-L list is identical to what used to be the tango
list.]
All subscription and unsubscription requests for the tango-L list are
handled by an automatic list server. Please send one of the following
messages in the BODY of an e-mail message to [log in to unmask]
(You can put anything you like in the Subject: line, since it is
ignored.)
TO SUBSCRIBE:
subscribe tango-L Your Full Name
[Replace "Your Full Name" with your actual first and last names, e.g.,]
[ subscribe tango-L Sandra Lewis ]
TO UNSUBSCRIBE:
signoff tango-L
or
unsubscribe tango-L
TO RECEIVE DIGESTED MAIL (ALL MESSAGES FOR THE DAY CONSOLIDATED INTO 1 E-MAIL):
set tango-L digest
TO SUSPEND MAIL TEMPORARILY (E.G., WHEN YOU'RE ON VACATION)
set tango-L nomail
TO RESUME TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED MAIL (OR CHANGED FROM DIGEST TO NON-DIGEST):
set tango-L mail
NOTES!!!
1. The e-mail must be sent to [log in to unmask], and NOT to
[log in to unmask], nor even to [log in to unmask]
2. Your e-mail address does not appear in any of these commands, because
it is automatically extracted from your mail headers. If you use
different machines on which you have different e-mail addresses,
make sure that you send the mail from the machine on which you
want to receive your list-related mail.
3. If you need to reach the "human" list administrator for any matters
that cannot be handled by the automatic server (such as questions),
send e-mail to [log in to unmask]
================================================================
COPY OF YOUR ORIGINAL ARTICLE
|
