>I'm new to admistering ListServ and I have a couple of what (I think are)
>basic questions but I couldn't find a simple answer in the manuals:
>
>1. How do I control the contents of the "welcome" message sent when a user
>is subscribed to the list?

Depending on exactly how the user is subscribing different messages
will be sent.  Some can be suppressed and others can't.

I assume you have not created a listname.WELCOME file.  (If a
listname.WELCOME file is in LISTSERV's MAIN directory then it is sent
to new subscribers.)

You can get rid of the SIGNUP1 message, which by default says something like:

| Your subscription to the LISTNAME list (LISTNAME lists's title) has been
| accepted.
|
| Please save this message for future  reference, especially if this is the
| first time you are subscribing to an electronic mailing list. If you ever
[. . .]

by going to the SIGNUP1 template for the mailing list and replacing
its contents with ".QQ".  (You'd do this through the web interface.
If the web interface isn't enabled you'd use the methods described in
Chapter 9 of the Site Manager's Manual.)

Another message that is generally sent to new subscribers says
something like the following:

| > SUBSCRIBE LISTNAME Fred Q. Public
| You have been added to the LISTNAME list.

This message can be suppressed, but only if the subscriptions are
being done through a web form or similar process that you have full
control over.  In this case you would change the form so that when
[log in to unmask] subscribes using it the following message is sent:

| From: [log in to unmask]
| To: [log in to unmask]
|
| //X JOB REPLY-TO=none
| SUBSCRIBE listname user name

If there are other messages you're seeing that you want to supress
feel free to ask about them.

Some general comments:

First of all, you may wish to reconsider removing all feedback that
would let a potential subscriber know whether they've subscribed
successfully or not.  There are still cases where email gets lost or
is otherwise never delivered and if LISTSERV doesn't send a
notification back people trying to subscribe have no immediate way of
knowing whether their message was lost or acted on.

Secondly, I suspect that you've got Subscription= Open set.  (As
distinguished from "Subscription= Open,Confirm".)  This is
problematic as it leaves your mailing list open to abuse; without the
Confirm people could be added to your mailing list without their
consent (and, if you disable all the welcoming messages, without
their knowledge as well).  For this and related reasons we always
recommend that our customers use Subscription=Open,Confirm unless
they have some other mechanism in place to ensure that people are not
subscribed to their mailing lists without their permission.

I think that about covers it.

>2. How do I add a message to the bottom of each message sent through a list?

Create a BOTTOM_BANNER section in your listname.mailtpl file as
described in Chapter 9 of the Site Manager's Manual.  In my opinion
this is most easily done through the web interface; go into the
mailing list management part of the web interface, click on the
Templates button, and then select the bottom banner template and edit
it.

I hope this information is enough to get you started.

Thanks,
--
Jacob Haller, Technical Support
L-Soft international, Inc
http://www.lsoft.com/