Eric,
 
Since you're going to make folk think about their Template files, how about
adding an INFO section combined with a new option/command to request it.
This would describe a list to users who are trying to decide whether to
subscribe to a list or not.
 
This section might contain information about the list such as:
 
1) A short paragraph describing the focus of the list.  The default may
   be just the long name and comment info in the header file.  Hopefully,
   listowners would be encouraged to customize it with a paragraph or
   two.
 
2) The number of current subscribers.
 
3) Some 'human language' descriptions of various key words in the header,
   such as "Subscription to this list is open to the public", "The list
   is run by xxxx whose mail address is [log in to unmask]", "The list is archived
   in [monthy, weekly,...] logs", "This list is available in digest/summary
   format", etc.
 
4) Possibly, some summary statistic on the list such as total posting over
   the last time period, the avg posting per day.
 
5) Other useful stuff that I've left out.
 
Basically, I'd hope it'd be a quick way for non-technical folks to get the
same information which a lot of technical user now get.  You know, the folks
that do the STATS, REVIEW, INDEX, & GET LOGxxxx, before subscribing or not.
 
Also, if Listserv managers required the first section to be customized, it
would help with the creation of a 'find the perfect list' search database.
Eventually, a person could say 'I want to read a list which deals with
Com-Pac 23 sailboats.' and the database system would come back with a
list of posibilities and a paragraph describing each list.  Or, on the
simpler side, it would make it easy for an automaticaly updated "complete
list of lists" to be created with more useful details.
 
A possible way for this information to be retrieved would be to modify the
INFO command so that a list name could be used as a parameter.  Users could
send an INFO <list> command to the listserv and get this information.  Of
course, the downside is that a list could not be named the same as some of
the current INFO options.  If that's a big problem, then maybe INFO LIST
<listname> would work?
 
Just an idea I thought I'd throw out to the lions....  I realize that I've
now exceeded my limit of yearly suggestions and I'll go back to quitly
watching the fun....8-)...
 
Greg Monroe  <[log in to unmask]>
Duke's Fuqua School of Business
Durham, NC  27708-0114