From: Paul Robinson <[log in to unmask]>
Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA
-----
Steven Hodas <[log in to unmask]>, writes:
 
> A friend of mine wants to subscribe to some mailing lists from
> her America OnLine account. The problem is that their mail
> software requires that something go in the subject line or it
> won't send the mail. She's tried putting spaces in but it
> doesn't work.
>
> Does anyone know of a workaround? If so, please mail it to me.
 
The following can be referred to as the "Federal Express" Subject
line dropper (When it absolutely, positively has to get there without
a subject line)  Let's say she wants to subscribe to the stupid list
([log in to unmask]), the she should send the following type of
message (with any subject) to
 
   [log in to unmask]
 
where essentially the following text appears (the second line after
the //TO card is only if she wants a copy back):
 
 
//MSG01 JOB ECHO=NO
DISTRIBUTE MAIL
//TO  DD *
LISTSERV@BITNET1
[log in to unmask]    J. Radome User
/*
//DATA DD *
Date:        Thu, May 27, 1993  12:42:45 EST
From:        Joanne R. User <[log in to unmask]>
To:
 
SUBSCRIBE STUPID-L  Joanne R. User
SET STUPID-L DUALHDR
/*
//MSG01  EOJ
 
 
(If you wanted to, at this point a new //name JOB card could occur, which
could contain a whole new message.)
 
Let me now explain what is stated here.  The //sender JOB card starts a
command job.  the name after the // and before the word "JOB" can be anything
you want as long as it's 8 letters or less.
 
After the //TO DD card is the list of E-Mail addresses, one per line,
and optionally, after each address, at least one space and the
Personal Name or identification code you give them.
 
The //DATA DD card indicates the start of the message.  This must be a
legal Internet RFC-841 format message (or any of the extended formats
including MIME) with two important points to note:
 
   1.  The personal name field on the From: line can be anything you want
       to use, the field in brackets <> must *exactly* match the address
       your mailer sends out.  For example, my account on MCI mail has two
       components, a name I give out "[log in to unmask]" and the precise
       account number "[log in to unmask]" and a message sent to
       either of these will be sent to my mailbox, but when I send out a
       message from MCI Mail, only the 0005066432 identifier is used.
       In my case, *that* is the one that I *must* use.
 
   2.  The 'To:' field must be left blank.  Each user that receives it will
       only see his own address on it.
 
   3.  Optionally, after 'To: ' could come 'Reply-To: ' and 'Subject: '
       fields, but since she wants to avoid a subject, they are optional.
 
   4.  A blank line must follow the last header entry.
 
 
Note that this can be used for sending messages to automated servers
or other systems that demand the subject be blank.  It can also be used
to send MIME format messages from systems that don't support MIME, thus
allowing multipart messages and so on.
 
---
Paul Robinson - [log in to unmask]
-----
The following Automatic Fortune Cookie was selected only for this message:
 
Sorry about that, Chief!
                                        -- Maxwell Smart