>>>From: Judith Hopkins <[log in to unmask]> >>>I am looking at my names printout and there are a number with >>>the " " that do not contain any special characters that I can see There are, in my experience, two ways of subscribing. The first is to follow the instructions and send the msg "sub list firstname lastname", the second is to just send the msg "sub list". If you DON'T supply a name with the sub command, listserv will look in the mail header. (This is not documented to my knowledge, but I tried it from my Juno account and that's what happened.) That's where the quotes and parens and brackets come from - the subscriber's mail header can contain all sorts of stuff! If you DO supply a name with the sub command, it is NOT checked to make sure it's a first and last name. Try it. Send a sub command to a list you are already subscribed to, with about 4 random words after the listname - all of those words will show up when you GET the list. I have been known to use this to pass editorial comments to the list owner. Here are two entries from a real list I own: > [log in to unmask] Steven R. Eckert 1AAMGBCx91// > [log in to unmask] S R E 1AAMGJCx9h// Note that special characters (the '.') do not cause escaping or quoting, and that you are not limited to two words for the name. Even if the list owner requires a proper first and last name during the subscription process (sub by owner), the subscriber can send a new sub command after the process is completed, and alter their entry. One clever subscriber did this on my list: > [log in to unmask] YourFirstNameHere YourLastNameHere 1AAMGBCx9k// I've replaced the name with "???????" for privacy, but GET really does return "YourFirstNameHere YourLastNameHere" instead of a real name. This behavior might be different on different hardware platforms. I think this list is on a Pentium running Windoze NT. SRE * * * - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * * * * Eckert Enterprises Steve Eckert [log in to unmask] * * * * - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * * * * ftp: 192.100.81.1 415-508-0500 fax: 415-508-0501 * * * * - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * * * 1814 Oak Knoll Drive, Belmont California 94002-1753 (USA)