Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!hellgate.utah.edu!dog.ee.lbl.gov!ucbvax!MEMSTVX1.BITNET!FLOWERS
From: FLOWERS@MEMSTVX1.BITNET (Harry Flowers)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: RE: Enough
Message-ID: <AAE492AC46000510@post-office.uh.edu>
Date: 4 Mar 91 17:42:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: INFO-TeX@SHSU.BITNET
Lines: 54

>To whoever is in charge of this list:
>
>I have been receiving a small but steady stream of contentless
>messages, consisting mostly of administrative messages which, like this
>one, should not have gone out to the entire list.
 
This is life with unmoderated lists.  I also belong to INFO-VAX, and they
are somewhat less polite with people who send these requests to the list
rather than the administrative address.  Basically, the people who do it
are ignorant of the correct procedures, and consequently look like idiots.
 
With BITNET, administrative mail is sent to the LISTSERV.  With Internet,
it is usually sent to <list>-Request where "<list>" is the list name.  I
believe that either form will work with INFO-TeX, though the list owner
seems to prefer that mail be sent to the LISTSERV address.
 
The problem is not with the list owner, but the list users.  To get the
rapid turnaround time of an unmoderated list, you have to depend on your
subscribers to behave in a civilized and polite list manner.
 
Please don't blame the list owner.
 
>                                                   However, the last
>straw was a message I just received that apparently was an automatic
>"I'm not home" message generated by someone's mailer in response to a
>message sent to the list.  I suppose that message was in turn sent out
>to that same person, whose mailer will then generate another "I'm not
>home" message, that will then be sent out to the list...
 
If "vacation" or other automated response mail is employed, you should
always unsubscribe to any lists first.  One way to cut down on this is
by not having the return address as the list address, a (bad?) change
that was recently made.  Then, the senders of the messages are usually
annoyed instead of the entire list.  Also, having responses go to the
poster and having the poster summarize them generally works better, esp.
if the original problem is of limited general interest.
 
>This has made me realize that I do not want to belong to a mailing
>list that is not filtered by a human being.  So, please remove me from
>the INFO-TeX list.
 
This is an example of an administrative request being made to the list
instead of the administrative address(es).  Since you are not tolerant
of like requests, moderated lists or digests (like TeXHaX) would probably
better suit you.  But I'll miss possibly reading responses from:
 
>Leslie Lamport
 
Thanks for LaTeX.  Even if you won't say how to pronounce it... ;-)
 
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