Re: Message in a Bottle (was: Unsubscribe

Wilbur Streett (mailto:WStreett@MAIL.MONMOUTH.COM)
Thu, 1 Oct 1998 18:51:58 -0400

Message-ID:  <3.0.5.32.19981001185158.00b5a800@mail.monmouth.com>
Date:         Thu, 1 Oct 1998 18:51:58 -0400
From: Wilbur Streett <mailto:WStreett@MAIL.MONMOUTH.COM>
Subject:      Re: Message in a Bottle (was: Unsubscribe
To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU

Well, it's nice when technology provides all of the answers.  But in all
cases, technology always has things that require human intervention.

My ISP changed the name of the mail server. (from Monmouth.com to mail.monmouth.com). As a result I can't post email messages from the new email address, since according to the listserv softawre, I'm not subscribed at the with the email address of mailto:WStreett@mail.monmouth.com and I can't unsubscribe the old address. In order to be able to post, I had to subscribe with the new address. The net result is that I get two copies of Devel-L messages. I've asked the list owner on several occasions to remove my older email address from the list, but I'm still getting duplicate messages.

Of course, I could always forge the headers to get around the problem, but I've got better things to do with my time.

Now take this through the 30 or so lists that I'm subscribed to and that they are run by a wide variety of list servers, ListServ, MajorDomo, etc..

Now some lists are actually smart enough to filter what appears to be list commands and tell the user the appropriate email address to send them to. Other lists actually include sufficient information in each email message to allow people to unsubscribe. (X-comment).

In other words, it's not the people that have a problem, it's the technology. Technology is supposed to be the "study of useful techniques", not "the study of arcane things that I'm supposed to do to make this work."

Wilbur

PS. I've got more than 20 years experience with technology.

-------------------------------------------- Putting A Human Face On Technology ;-) --------------------------------------------