Norm Aleks said, in reply to my query
>> Shouldn't it be
>> SUBSCRIBE &LISTNAME Firstname Lastname?
>
>No, this is intentional.  It was discussed a while back in regard to the
>Web interface, or perhaps CataList (probably CataList), which proposes
>the same subscription format.  LISTSERV now sucks the name out of the
>headers if it can, and if not it will send back a note saying "please
>try again with your name".

I guess I missed that discussion.  Without digging it back out, I'd ven-
ture to say that this is a Bad Idea.  Better would have been to continue
to encourage people to supply their names, but should a name be missing,
enter sucking mode as described above.  More generally, one should en-
courage optimal but tolerate sub-optimal behavior.

I say this having given considerable effort to educate list members to
do it right, only to have them writing me now asking whether the rules
have changed.
                                             /b