tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Sep 29 14:01:47 1998

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Re: Help

On Tue, 29 Sep 1998 12:05:19 -0700 (PDT) KPeerke 
<[email protected]> wrote:

> In each header it says:
> 
> > X-Comment:  TO UNSUBSCRIBE: email "unsub tlhingan-hol" to [email protected]
> 
> Hmmmm. I wonder how to unsubscribe :-)
 
bIval 'e' DaHarlaw' 'ach chaq ghu' DayajHa'pu'.

There are several reasons this sometimes doesn't work. It once 
failed for me because the net admin was kind enough to manually 
enter me into the system using the shortcut version of my 
address ([email protected]), but when I went to unsubscribe, 
the address was more complete. At the time, that was 
[email protected], so when I sent a message from 
[email protected], listserv basically said, "So, who 
the hell are YOU? I can't unsubscribe you because you aren't 
subscribed."

There was no way for me to identify myself with the short 
address as the person who was trying to unsubscribe. So, the 
automated system didn't work.

Similarly, people often change Email systems and then forward 
mail from their old address, so the RECEIVE mail from the list, 
but when they try to unsubscribe, the mail comes from a 
DIFFERENT address, so listserv won't unsubscribe them.

Some people have one server for POP or IMAP to RECEIVE mail and 
a DIFFERENT server for SMTP to SEND mail, so again, there's no 
way to tell listserv that these two different mail hosts are 
actually handling mail for the same person. Listserv won't 
unsubscribe them.

And sometimes as a practical joke, one person will spoof a 
shortcut version of another person's Email address and subscribe 
them to the list just to bother them. Then the person who 
doesn't know how they got subscribed finds themselves unable to 
unsubscribe. Similarly, if someone has an Email address they are 
not using, they could forward it to someone else who would again 
receive the mail from the list, but would not be able to 
unsubscribe.

And sometimes people read Email with Eudora or Netscape and 
simply have their mailer misconfigured so that it doesn't report 
the correct Email address to listserv which, of course, can't 
identify them as people who are subscribed, so it won't 
unsubscribe them.

So, yes, some of the time, and perhaps even MOST of the time, 
people asking to unsubscribe are simply clueless and could 
unsubscribe if they followed the simple directions. Meanwhile, 
YOU have no way of knowing if this is true or if the people are 
suffering one of the above conditions (or something I have not 
thought of) which doesn't ALLOW them to unsubscribe without 
human intervention. 

Meanwhile, those who CAN intervene are human beings who don't 
spend their lives sitting by the keyboard, waiting to respond to 
these messages. Sometimes it takes a day or two. Or a week. And 
meanwhile, the person who wants to be unsubscribed is getting 10 
or 20 or 50 messages a day from a list they don't want to be on. 
It is understandable that they are frustrated.

So will people PLEASE not take this as an opportunity to flame 
people you don't know, assuming that you are smarter than they 
are. Maybe THEY are the ones who are savvy and YOU are the one 
who is clueless.

It could happen.
 
> grtjns Peerke,

charghwI' 'utlh.

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