On Tue, 21 Feb 1995, Norm Aleks wrote: (in part) > Hmm, well, if your program doesn't do this then it's missing its *biggest* > opportunity to help a listowner. ADD, DEL, and SET aren't the problem > commands, it's changing the list header that new listowners are intimidated > by. It sounds as if you think the list header is something only the > postmaster (who has access to the server hardware itself) would deal with > ... it's not. The list header is what list owners use to manage all > aspects of their list's behavior, and it's a normal text file, retrievable > and puttable as any other LISTSERV file would be. Your program could be a This seems to be a big hurdle for newbie listwoners, making changes to the header, filelist, etc. It is really no big deal, it's as close to being foolproof as it can be. If you screw things up in a major way LISTSERV probably won't accept it, you'll get an error message. If, by some fluke, you contrive a major error the program doesn't catch you have the old header, which is automatically saved as a safeguard for such situations (I always keep a copy of the old header until I'm sure everythig is well as I'm a "I'll do it myself" type person). If your error is minor, say you put in a space after a comma in a keyword line, it probably won't destroy your list, you'll just have part of a keyword line ignored, which you'll know as the list isn't doing what you wanted. So get the header again and look for the error, should be easy to spot if you really look at it. Changing the header is easy to do with most editors and the one your email program uses will probably suffice. (Anyone please point out any faux pas above). As to an after market program for listowners to do various tasks I don't see the point. Listowners can already do the things mentioned with far less hassle than having to go into some stupid GUI system (yeah, you propably guessed it, I don't see the point of GUIs and I do not run Windows (my hard drive upgrade had that stuff preloaded, I dumped it)). Finally, another of my "philosophical" questions. If all the "listowner" knows is "hit key x to do y" how is the listowner going to be able to answer the questions of subscribers when they have problems? If listowners are just buttonpushers, with no ability to investigate, evaluate, judge etc., who have no greater knowledge than Whosit Subscriber, nor a willingness to learn, which most subscribers do not have, what is the point of having listowners? How are listowners who know only "push this button to do this" any better than a totally automatted system (those who hate "autodelete" take note)? I said "finally" but I lied. A program to forge addresses is a *BAD* idea, technically, morally, ethically, etc. Douglas Douglas Winship Hays County, Texas [log in to unmask] Secondary AUTOCAT Listowner MEDLAB-L