On Wed, 7 Apr 2004 13:39:03 -0500, Paul Russell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>I interpreted the original message to mean that the questioner wanted to know if
>it was possible to prevent the topic name from appearing on the subject line of
>the message. If I interpreted the question correctly, the answer is 'No'. If
>there is no valid topic tag at the beginning of the subject line, the message is
>automatically assigned the topic 'Other'. The subject line is not changed, but
>the message is distributed only to those subscribers who have selected 'Other'
>or 'All' as their topic options.

Paul is quite correct.  However, there is an undocumented Feature that does
allow/tell LISTSERV to remove the topic: word(s) from the Subject: line of the
message sent out to the list.  (This was supposed to be included in the 2002a
Level Set Release Notes, sorry.)

First of all, you must be using a LISTSERV 1.8e version with Build Date of
16 Dec 2002 or later.  This feature does not exist in earlier builds of 1.8e.
Issue the SHOW LICENSE command to your LISTSERV.  The Build-Date is the last
line in the response to this command.

Secondly, the process requires an greater than average amount of skill on the
part of the person composing the message (or at any rate composing the
Subject: line), so it is probably only useful for announcement-style lists
where only a few people normally compose the messages, and where there may be
some cosmetic objection to seeing the Topics: keyword.  It would be difficult
to implement in an open-discussion style list with many users.

Briefly, the technique is that you add the special topics command *HIDE* on
the Subject: line with the Topics: keyword(s).  As you know, one or more
Topics keywords must appear _first_ on the Subject: line, followed by a
(single) colon character ":", followed by the normal Subject descriptive
word(s).

Single Topic:

  Subject: Cat: This is for cat lovers

Multiple Topics:

  Subject: Cat,Dog,Bird: This is for all pet lovers


To cause the Topics Keywords to be removed by LISTSERV, write this:


  Subject: *HIDE* Cat: This is for cat lovers
or
  Subject: *HIDE* Cat,Dog,Bird: This is for all pet lovers


The *HIDE* command need not appear first on the Subject: line, but it must
occur before the colon character ":" (which defines the end of the Topics:).
And the *HIDE* must have a leading and trailing blank space, unless it is the
first word on the Subject: line.  The *HIDE* command is not case sensitive.

These are all valid:

  Subject: *HIDE* Cat: This is for cat lovers
  Subject: Cat *HIDE* : This is for cat lovers
  Subject: Cat, *HIDE* Dog,Bird: This is for all pet lovers
  Subject: Cat,Dog, *HIDE* Bird: This is for all pet lovers
  Subject: Cat,Dog,Bird *HIDE* : This is for all pet lovers

This is not valid syntax:
 (hiding will not occur and the Subject: Line will appear as-is)

  Subject: Cat: This is for cat lovers *HIDE*

---------------

This "hide the topic keyword" feature is also available to users of our
LISTSERV Maestro product, when Defining Recipients from Standard LISTSERV
Lists, where the List in use has been configured with Topics.

Obviously this feature is meaningless if no Topics are defined for the list.
The addition of the (optional) [Subject-Tag] to the Subject: line is not
affected and will occur regardless of the *HIDE* command usage.