Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.3.91l.960301164400.10722A-100000@saul6.u.washington.edu> Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1996 17:05:07 -0800 From: Preston Hardison <mailto:pdh@U.WASHINGTON.EDU> Subject: Re: Unsubscribing from AOL To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Just a note for those trying to unsubscribe from AOL. AOL is notorious for having a quirky email system that creates headaches for others. When unsubscribing from AOL, you have to add something to the "Subject:" line - even a "." will do.As for patience. Maintaining a list for over 1,000 subscribers on a voluntary basis is not the most rewarding of tasks. A list manager's mailbox gets filled with error messages every day, and a manager has to sort through what is a temporary problem and what is not. Changing an address manually for someone may not be that time consuming when you consider each individual message - it takes me about 4 minutes when I do it for the lists I manage - but it really starts to take up time when you have dozens of such requests. Much of the time is spent calling up the subscribers list, and I save time by letting requests accumulate for a week or more before acting on them. I figure that a request to sign off a list is not a life threatening 911 situation.
Most list managers work pretty hard for no compensation. Sometimes they get behind, are slow to respond to onerous tasks with no reward, get caught in other trivial things like spending time with their families, managing projects or even taking walks in the fresh air. If you have to work a little while to get hold of a list-owner, maybe you should consider that other things are going on in their lives, and be a little grateful that you can get excellent services like DEVEL-L because someone is willing to provide that service for free. If you want service on demand, pay for it.
Preston Hardison mailto:pdh@u.washington.edu