In a recent case someone sent an announcement of a conference to many
lists - apparently every list in the LISTSERV global list file in this
case.  Obviously, most of the mailing lists used had nothing to do with
the topic of the conference and many people got dozens of copies of the
same message.
 
   Although it is hard to believe, I think some of the "message
floods" occur due to ignorance.  Maybe it would help prevent a FEW of
these if every "list of lists" included some sort of warning about
sending mail to multiple lists.
 
   To that end I've added the following note to the LISTSOF LISTS document
on our LISTSERV.  I am sure you can improve the wording but I wanted to
share the idea.
 
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    PLEASE NOTE:
       This document is an informal collection of "hints" which may
    help you find e-mail lists on specific topics.  If you have an
    announcement you would like to distribute, PLEASE send it ONLY
    to the one or two lists whose subscribers would be most interested.
 
       At no time should mail be sent to many lists or "all lists".
    Such "junk mail" causes many duplications and network congestion
    and is a violation of the spirit of most network usage agreements.
    If you are in doubt about this policy please check it out with
    your system administrators before sending mail to a list.
-----
 
   If you are interested in the whole document you may send e-mail to
[log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask] with the following
command in the BODY of the mail:     (note the spelling...).
 
     GET LISTSOF LISTS
 
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Marty Hoag
ND Higher Education Computer Network    US Mail: NDSU Computer Center
Phone: (701)-237-8639  Fax: (701)-237-7464       PO Box 5164 / UCCS
Bitnet:   nu021172@NDSUVM1    (NOTE 0 = ZERO)    Fargo, ND  58105
Internet: [log in to unmask]   UUCP:...!uunet!plains!vm1.nodak.edu!nu021172