(David asked about converting a 1,000 member 200 message/day list). Since you didn't mention your LISTSERV platform and I'm only familiar with 1.8b on VM/CMS, I'll just offer some personal observations on some list header keywords (your mileage will vary)... * Review= Owner Your subscription list can be used in so many BAD ways, keep it confidential. * Subscription= Open,Confirm The OK mechanism is a wonderful LISTSERV feature. So many people will spoof a subscription or mis-type their "From:" address or can't receive mail at the same address from whcih they send ... that Confirm is worth its weight in gold. * Confirm-Delay= 96 I find the default 48 hours a little short, especially for M-F "members". * Send= Editor,Hold This is good protection agains "spam", though other methods work also. These options tell LISTSERV to automatically authorize any Editor to post and to send any other attempted post to the Moderator. * Notify= [log in to unmask] This specifies that signon/signoff confirmations should be copied to this address. On a list with many subscribers coming and going, I make this address the name of another list and I subscribe to a digest of that list (cuts down my mail volume, but I still get to see the activity). This also lets other administrators see this activity if need be. This other list is probably confidential and has subscription by owner. * Reply-to=Sender,Respect If it feels like your list is high volume or you often see personal replies on the list, try this option. If you're trying to foster discussion, use "Reply-To=List,Respect". * Files= No When will this become the default or be removed from LISTSERV? I'm ready now. * Validate= Yes,Confirm,NOPW This makes it difficult for people to enter commands "for" someone else. Without some such option as this, almost anyone in the world can signoff all your good posters ... at the least creating some havoc. * List-Address= LISTNAME@FQDN * List-ID= Some_alias_for_your_list Let's you have an alias name for your list, should you want it. * Confidential= No LISTSERV will place this list in it's list-of-lists. * Default-Options= Repro,Review These are completely a matter of taste. "Repro" tells LISTSERV to a distribution to the article poster, if subscribed. Some of my subscribers need the feedback :-) "Review" says that this subscriber's post (a new subscriber) will be sent to the Moderator. Presumably, you might reset the subscriber to "Noreview" once s/he is shown to write within list standards. * Notebook= Yes,x,Weekly,Public Are postings archived? Where? How? Are they publicly available? * Errors-To= [log in to unmask] Delivery diagnostic messages that can't be recognised by LISTSERV are sent here. * Digest= Yes,Same,Daily,05:00,Size(1500) Are daily digests available? If so, when are they "cut" (time and size). The size referes to total lines of postings since the last digest. When a posting comes in to cause the total to exceed this value (1500 here), a "special" digest is sent immediately and including this last posting. Some mail systems can't accept over 100,000 bytes per message (1500*60 is 80,000). JUNO can't accept over 61,440 bytes :-( * Sizelim= 500 Limit the size of outgoing messages in lines. If your list accepts non- text information, this keyword should probably be set very high or disabled. * Auto-Delete= Yes,Semi-Auto,Delay(4),Max(250) Pick your own values, but this seems to work. Good arguments can be made for other values! * Stats= Normal,Owner LISTSERV won't win awards on stats it makes available, but luckily its great in most other areas. :-) * Daily-Threshold= 400 All my lists have such a statement, but in many years I've never had a runaway list where this proved useful. Using this keyword to limit postings on a list would be quite unsatisfactory (1.8b). Hope this helps (or maybe leads to some discussion), wayne Wayne T. Smith mailto:[log in to unmask] Systems Group -- CAPS University of Maine System Co-owner of the College Hockey mailing lists