Maybe it is because it is late at night, but I just noticed that reports
such as the following show a gender bias.  I don't know the gender of the
subscriber in question (anonymized for the purpose of this example), so I
don't know how LISTSERV can make an assumption.

Unfortunately, replacing "his" with "his/her" is a simple, but incomplete
solution because it doesn't take reflectors, gateways, or group/role
accounts (helpdesk, postmaster, root) into account.

At the risk of sounding impersonal, "his" could be replaced with
"its/their" (singular/plural).

Or how about "The following 1 subscriber was asked for confirmation of
subscription to the NAUSICAA list."

It is too bad that English doesn't have a gender-neutral pronoun that
can be used for people, in the way that the German "man" is used.


Just a thought.

-- Michael S. Johnson   Miyazaki Web and Mailing List Owner
   [log in to unmask]   www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/mailing-list


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1998 06:00:05 -0500
From: "L-Soft list server at Brown University (1.8b)"
     <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: NAUSICAA: Subscription renewal monitoring report


The following 1 subscriber was requested to confirm his subscription to the
NAUSICAA list:

 [log in to unmask]