If a  mod were made  to LISTSERV  to support 8  char userids with  -REQUEST on
the end, then the -Request problem could be solved.
 
On a  VM system, an  item sent to LISTNAME  or to LISTNAME-REQUEST  would fall
into  the same  RDR,  namely LISTNAME's.  This means  that  if LISTSERV  could
verify that the  mail is being sent to LISTNAME,  and not to LISTNAME-REQUEST,
then a mechanism  would exist for all incoming files  (Xwell MAILER can handle
a 'SPECIAL' case route for the -REQUEST id already).
 
The trick is  to verify this by the  complete userid being sent to  in the To:
field (or  Resent-To:, cc:,  and so  on ...) by  scanning to  the left  of the
first delimiter, such as @ or %.
 
This only  works for  8 char userids  because anything less  would give  a RDR
address  that is  not the  same, as  in MAIL-L  and MAIL-L-REQUEST,  requiring
that  another  userid,  in  this  example MAIL-L-R,  be  established.  If  the
list rule of  -L were added, the  significant list name part  would be reduced
still further to 6 characters.
 
Comments?
 
/Geert