Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mailrus!ames!dftsrv!mimsy!chris
From: chris@mimsy.umd.edu (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: subscribe
Message-ID: <21790@mimsy.umd.edu>
Date: 12 Jan 90 16:08:42 GMT
References: <22013@adm.BRL.MIL> <12831@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <821@edstip.EDS.COM>
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 56

In article <12831@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> subbarao@phoenix.Princeton.EDU
(Kartik Subbarao) writes:
>	Is there a special mailing list associated with
>	comp.unix.questions? -- If so, subscribe me please

Then, in article <821@edstip.EDS.COM>, ohrnb@edstip.EDS.COM (Erik Ohrnberger)
follows up with:
> 	Is there a special mailing list associated with
> 	comp.unix.questions? -- If so, subscribe me please

The `subscribe' and `unsubscribe' postings come from people who blindly
believe that sending mail with such subjects will cause that effect
magically to occur.  In the immortal words of some mortal, `It Just
Ain't So.'

comp.unix.questions is `gatewayed' to Internet and BITNET mailing lists.
Thus, there *is* a special mailing list.  What appears on it is exactly
what appears on comp.unix.questions.  There is no point in reading it
that way, when you can read it directly on USENET (with a much faster
turnaround time as well).

As long as I have this message going out, I may as well append another
standard text:

For those wishing to subscribe to any of the mailing lists on
which this message is appearing, or for those who are already on such a
mailing list and want to get off it, please do NOT send your requests
to the mailing list itself.  This sends the message on out to every
reader of the list and across some gateway software to USENET; it thus
reaches literally thousands of machines and merely serves to annoy
everyone except those who have control of the mailing list itself.
More importantly, in many cases the mailing list editor (person) does
not read the list itself, and messages to the list are thus worse than
useless.

Please send requests to the -request form of the list.  For instance,
to get on or off the Unix-Wizards list, rather than sending a message
to Unix-Wizards@brl.arpa, send it to Unix-Wizards-Request@brl.arpa.
Remember that mail gets delayed and that people take vacations, and
that mailing list maintenance is often a low priority project; it can
easily take two or three weeks to get action on some request.
Moreover, many lists have local redistribution points, to ease the load
on mailers (using a mail system as a bulletin board has some
drawbacks!).  You should check for a local redistribution list first
before sending mail to the -request address.  Likewise, if you were
added to a local redistribution list, asking the -request address to
remove your name from the list is unlikely to be effective.

BITNET mail is often handled through automatic mail servers located at
specific BITNET redistribution points.  Information as to which lists
are located where, and how to use them, should be available from your
BITNET administrator (I myself have no idea which, where, and how).

-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris@cs.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris