Daniel Convissor's Website

Management of Electronic Mailing Lists

Jim wrote an good summary of how to deal with electronic mailing lists, which I attach here. I put his point number 5 to the top of the list, since an increasing number of mailing lists are handled by listproc servers.

--Dan

To: depave-earth@community.net
Subject: All-Purpose Signoff Instructions
Date: Thu, 03 Nov 94 13:58:04 -0800
From: Jym Dyer jym@sybase.com

=o= It is never a good idea to send a message to an entire
mailing list asking (or demanding) to be taken off the list.
With one exception, the people on the list can't take you
off the list.  Meanwhile, it usually prompts an avalanche
of "take me off too" messages, which the people on the list
can't do anything about, either.

=o= Someone may post specific instructions about getting off
this particular list, but in the meantime, read the attached,
and save it for future reference.

             How To Unsubscribe From Any Email List

For the purposes of this memo, let's assume you're on an
email list called WHATEVER at SITE.COM.  The email alias
is < WHATEVER@SITE.COM >.  (If the list has a name like
"WHATEVER-L", you should try step 4 first.)

=5= If you get no response, send mail to the "listproc" alias.
For our example, that address would be < listproc@SITE.COM >.
The text of your message should be "unsubscribe WHATEVER".

=1= First, send a request to the "-request" alias.  For our
example, that would be < WHATEVER-request@SITE.COM >.  This is
usually read by a human being, so write accordingly.

=2= If you get not response from the above, send mail to the
"majordomo" alias.  That's < majordomo@SITE.COM > for our example.
If the list is administered by the majordomo software, you'll
get instructions for unsubscribing mailed back to you.

=3= If you get no response, send mail to the "owner-" alias.
For our example, < owner-WHATEVER@SITE.COM >.  This should go to
the human who administers the list.

=4= If you get no response, send mail to "LISTSERV".  For our
example, that address would be < LISTSERV@SITE.COM >.  The text
of your message should be "SIGNOFF WHATEVER".

=6= If you get no response, send mail to the site "postmaster".
For our example, that address is < postmaster@SITE.COM >.  Mention
that you tried the previous four steps, to no avail.

=7= If you get no response, send mail to "root".  Our example
address is < root@SITE.COM >.  Mention that you tried the previous
five steps, to no avail.

=8= If -- and only if -- all the above fail, send a message to
the list itself.  Make it courteous, particularly since the vast
majority of the people reading it can't do a thing about it.
Try to avoid setting off a bunch of "me too" messages by saying
something like, "Please don't chime in with a bunch of 'I want
to unsubscribe too' messages."