Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!psuvax1!psuvm!PSULIAS!JLW From: JLW@PSULIAS.BITNET (Lance Wilkinson) Newsgroups: bit.listserv.wp50-l Subject: (no subject given) Message-ID: <900212.11355891.009884@PSU.CP6> Date: 12 Feb 90 16:36:02 GMT Sender: WordPerfect Corporation Products Discussion List Reply-To: WordPerfect Corporation Products Discussion List Lines: 46 Approved: NETNEWS@PSUVM Gateway Resent-Subject: Using a LISTSERVer... Resent-Comments: Please Acknowledge Receipt Comments: Resent-From: Lance Wilkinson I commented directly to Tony concerning his advise to folks who aren't LISTSERV-literate. He suggested that others on the list might benefit so I'm forwarding my comments to the list as well. In view of the further comments from Bill Coons and Gene Wiggins, I guess my comments might be even more useful. Lance Wilkinson [814-865-1818] Sent: 02/12/90 08:20 Rcvd: 02/12/90 08:27 Number: 10 To: TONY@YORKVM2.BITNET "A. M. (Tony) From: Lance Wilkinson Cichan" Subject: Your well-founded comments to folks who don't know LISTSERVers... Your commentary was good, but there was one fallacy which you laid upon the readers. A message off of WP50-L which I *JUST* responded to *DID NOT HAVE* a From: address header. You may have also recieved that message already; it was from "Ben" and requested a method by which he could save himself retyping the contents of a large WP Macro into a Technical Manual. If you have already recieved it, look back at it; if not, look at it when it arrives. You'll see the only way I could reply to it was through the WP50-L list, since the only identification of sender is in the signature of "Ben" at the end of the message. While your method of looking back at the From: address is obviously the best method, it can't be used in every situation. And folks who are unaware of the way that an ANSWER (*my* Email system's REPLY command) to a message from a LISTSERVer gets broadcast to all subscribers are going to be pretty confused (and may return to their old, irritating ways) when they find a message such as Ben's that they want to respond to. There are lots of Email systems out there that connect to BitNet and have the ability to request subscriptions of a LISTSERVer. They don't all act the same way, and thus all the messages will not be formatted the same. It's our duty to guide those less informed than we, but guiding them down the primrose path does neither them nor us a service. J.Lance Wilkinson Systems Design Specialist - Lead Penn State University Library Computing Services (814) 865-1818