On Sat, 23 Oct 1999, Roger Fajman wrote:

> > effect for each sub-list is not the same.  If Listserv *were* to honor
> > sub-list subscriber settings when mail is sent to a superlist, which
> > sub-list would Listserv get them from?

I'm still trying to fit your suggestion into a setup with our class
mailing lists, knowing full well that this setup might be unique (I hope
I'm not wasting you or anyone elses time).  You suggest:

> (1)  Take them from the first sublist that the subscriber appears on.
> (2)  Take them from the last sublist that the subscriber appears on.

Would you agree that the only purpose of Listserv doing (1) or (2) would
be to provide the subscriber with some control over how mail from a
particular superlist is distributed to them?  In order for either to work,
the subscriber would have to *know* on which sub-list they appear first or
last (which could be different depending on who is sending the mail to
which superlist). I'm having this nightmare of only getting hundreds of
students wanting to know, out of the possible thousands who could ask,
each Term.  Am I misunderstanding your suggestion?.  As it stands now,
they do know on which sub-lists they are on and can set their options
for each.

> (3)  Ignore the subscriber options but apply the Default-options from
> the superlist.

Would you agree that this suggestion removes control of the distribution
options from subscribes of all sub-lists (as in (1) and (2) above) and
puts it in the hands of *only* the List Owners of any given superlist?
To some extent, this is how it is now when sending mail to a superlist
with the exception that only the Default-options that apply to
non-subscribers are passed on. I think I found all of them (assume their
alternate): REVIEW, NOPOST, and ACK

My problem is that I'm still of the old thought that subscribers should be
able to control distribution options that are NOT the list management ones
of REVIEW and NOPOST.  It bothers me less that these are passed on because
they are options that subscribers should not control anyway.  I would be
troubled I suppose if REPRO (and some other default-options) could be
imposed on subscribers of sub-lists by superlist Owners without any means
of how to turn it off.

It doesn't help that from:
http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8d/owner/appendb.html#keyDefaultOptions

We read:

"Starting with LISTSERV 1.8d, all default options are applied to
non-subscribers, so it is possible to force even non-subscribers...."

> The current situation, in which there is no control over subscriber
> options, seems the least ddesirable.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I see the subscriber as having control over ALL
options on lists that they are on (mail to and from their sub-lists) and I
see List Owners having control over some management options via
default-options (REVIEW, POST) on a superlist.  I guess it never really
bothered me too much that non-subscribes could not set/change
distributions options on lists to which they were not explicitly
subscribed (superlists).

There is likely the source of confusion as some would argue that sub-list
only subscribers are not subscribers of the superlist while others would
argue perhaps that they are indeed subscribers so long as they are
receipients of the mail sent to it.  Thus, I would be in favour of finding
a way to provide the subscriber with control over their options rather
than letting List Owners impose those options via passing on all
Default-options on a superlist; options that the subscriber cannot change
or turn off. Sorry for the rambling.

--Trish