The syntax of the DELETE and SIGNOFF commands have been enhanced in 1.5n to allow node administrators to remove deleted accounts from all (well most) LISTSERV lists. The previous syntax was: SIGNOFF listname (options DELETE listname userid@node (options Only the list owners were authorized to remove users from a list. The syntax has been expanded to provide the following new facilities: - Registered node administrators (NADs) can use the DELETE command to remove their users from any list. They may validate the command with their personal LISTSERV password (if they have one), in which case a full deletion process will take place. If the NAD did not validate the command (either because he doesn't have a password for the target server or because he forgot to use it), a "weak" delete will be performed which will either send a request to the list owner (as a SIGNOFF command would do, but the text is slightly different) or perform a full deletion, depending on the way the list is set up. - An asterisk may be used for 'listname', meaning that the user should be removed from all lists known to the server. This was already possible under 1.5m. - 'DD=ddname' may be substituted to 'userid@node', indicating that several users are to be removed at once. The specified dataset must contain one userid@node per line; blank lines and comment lines (starting with '*') will be ignored. - A new option, 'NETWIDE', may be specified to request LISTSERV to forward the job to all the known servers. If such a request is submitted to a non-backbone server, it will immediately forward it to the nearest backbone LISTSERV, which will then distribute it to all the registered LISTSERVs in the world (including the non-backbone ones). However non-backbone servers tend not to be updated very often and may not recognize the request. - Finally, there is another new option, 'UPCASE', which will cause case to be ignored during the search. This is useful for internet addresses and superfluous for BITNET/EARN [log in to unmask] Thus, a user who wants his account removed from all lists would use the following command: SIGNOFF * (NETWIDE A node administrator wishing to remove a bunch of accounts from all known lists would have to submit a job to the nearest backbone server: //Addio JOB Echo=No DELETE * DD=Names (NETWIDE //Names DD * * * Partirono le rondine * del mio paese fredo e senza sol... * userid1@node1 userid2@node2 (...) /* An important thing to note is that a NAD does not have any kind of authority on users subscribed under an internet address. For example, someone subscribed as [log in to unmask] could NOT be deleted by the CUNYVM NAD. This is not a bug, and there is nothing I can do about it at the moment. The reason is just that there is presently no way to know that CUNYVM and CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU are the same machine. Eric