Eric Thomas wrote:
>
> On Fri, 24 Sep 1993 10:54:58 EDT "Sathaye, Shashi"
> <[log in to unmask]> said:
>
> >Is it possible to include in the canned confirmation request to tell the
> >user that the user is being subscribed as [log in to unmask] and to send
> >the mail for confirmation from exactly same machine?
>
> Since LISTSERV doesn't recognize the  two addresses as being identical it
> can't issue that warning. As far as  it is concerned, there is no pending
> request from the  user who sent the OK command.  Again, mail systems that
> use  a different  address depending  on day  of week  are going  to cause
> problems anyway.
> he'd come back just  2 days
> later and say "I  tried to switch to digest and LISTSERV  says I'm not on
> the list!!!!".
>
>   Eric
>
The non-LISTSERV mailing list that I am participating in has also been
plagued with this problem, especially on UNSUBSCRIBE requests.  In my
naivete and hubris I wonder if something like the following could be a
long term solution.  Modify the syntax of SUBSCRIBE and other subscriber
specific commands to take an additional optional parameter specifying
the subscribers standard e-mail address. For instance.
 
    SUBSCRIBE list name <...> <AT e-mail_address>
 
All requests using the optional parameter would require a confirmation.
The confirmation would be sent to the supplied e-mail_address not the
From: address, but could be returned from any address.  The text of the
confirmation would indicate the standard address being confirmed and
some sort of athentication send by the LISTSERV (a random 32 bit number
prehaps).
 
If this idea doesn't have security holes,
it's just a SMOP, right Eric. :-)
--
John Bacon
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