>Is anyone aware of an interdependence between the Mail-via and ack options
>in a list setup.
 
Yup.
 
>                  I recently changed my lists to "ack Yes" because users
>complained that they weren't getting enough feedback from the server to
>know if their contributions had been processed -- "ack Yes" helped.
 
Funny, most users ask for just the opposite - less feedback.
 
>However, Mail-via Distribute was then specified for one of these lists and
>it seems that listserv is no longer sending the little statistics file
>resulting from "ack Yes".
 
Right you are. That's because the posting LISTSERV has no concrete idea of
what the network load caused by a DISTRIBUTE job is. Since each LISTSERV
along the way recomputes the path, the flight plan sometimes changes in
mid-air. I suppose LISTSERV could add "to nnn users" to the "Your mail file
has been distributed to the <listname> list" message, but it really has
no way to properly compute the "link.kbytes" load figure.
 
If all your users want is confirmation that their contribution has been
processed, suggest they send a "SET <listname> REPRO" command to LISTSERV.
That will cause LISTSERV to send them a copy of any mail they send to the
list. It's ugly, but it works.
 
>                           Thank you for your help.
 
You're welcome.
Ross Patterson
Rutgers University