It looks like I started quite a discussion here yesterday. Let me elaborate
on the bigger problem I am having:

My goal was not to change subscription options without notification, my goal
was to find a way to prevent a problem I'm running into when using tickets
in mail-merge messages.

My list had no default subscription options. I sent a newsletter with
subscribe and unsubscribe tickets in the letter. However, after clicking on
the URL, a lot of people received a message that they needed to provide a
name, or type anonymous in place of their name, to properly subscribe. The
problem here is that tickets leave no form to enter the info and most people
got very frustrated very quickly. I needed a quick solution to make things
more user friendly. I asked for a bit of help and the Listserv-developers
group suggested making CONCEAL the default to side-step the problem.

If anyone has better ideas, I'd very much welcome them.

Thanks in advance.


-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Rauch [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2000 4:44 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: List-wide subscription changes


> You probably want to do this QUIETly...
>
> QUIET SET listname NOCONCEAL FOR *@*

On the other hand, you probably want to ask subscribers why
they're SET to CONCEAL. If you UNconceal them without asking them
first, or at the least, without giving them the opportunity to
UNSUBSCRIBE first (so their presence on the list in not
revealed), you'll likely create some serious animosity among
subscribers. To reSET them to NOCONCEAL "QUIET"ly would be even
more egregious than simply doing it without asking them first.
(Maybe you've already done all this "checking". If so, my advice
can be ignored.)

Peter R