On Fri, 22 Oct 1993 10:16:07 +0100 Jean P. Wilmotte said:
>As to sending commands to a LISTSERV, I've read several times some
>instructions telling to leave the Subject: field blank.
>I wonder why.
>1. If the LISTSERV software doesn't want to get anything from this line, it
>should not read it.
>
It doesn't.
 
>2. A non blank Subject: line is useful to me. I never throw away my copy of
>a message I sent out until I get a complete feedback to it. Non blank
>Subject: lines help me to see at a glance in my "out" folder which subjects
>are still pending.
>
Put anything you want on the Subject line.  LISTSERV doesn't care.
 
>3. Last but not least, I seldom left the Subject: line  blank when sending
>commands to LISTSERV's, but *never* had any problem caused by the non blank
>Subject: line.
>
So you've experimentally found out the answers to your own questions.  Not
as good, I agree, as seeing them stated authoritatively.  I suspect that
people say "Leave the subject line blank" because SOME servers/daemons
expect (or tolerate) commands in the Subject: line, and the intent is to
be very explicit that LISTSERV will ignore any command you might put there.
                                             /b