Subject: Your message to [email-masked]

From: "L-Soft list server at UKCC (1.8b)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 11 Feb 1996 15:21:00 -0500

Sun, 11 Feb 1996 15:21:00

Your message to [email-masked] has  been forwarded to the "list
owners" (the people  who manage the OGL  list). If you wanted  to reach a
human  being, you  used  the correct  procedure and  you  can ignore  the
remainder of this message.  If you were trying to send  a command for the
computer to execute, please read on.

The OGL  list is managed by  a LISTSERV server. LISTSERV  commands should
always be  sent to the  "LISTSERV" address, ie  [email-masked] (or
[email-masked]). LISTSERV  never tries to process  messages sent to
the OGL-Request  address; it simply forwards  them to a human  being, and
acknowledges receipt with the present message.

The "listname-Request" convention originated on  the Internet a long time
ago. At  the time, lists were  always managed manually, and  this address
was defined as an alias for the  person(s) in charge of the mailing list.
You would write to the  "listname-Request" address to ask for information
about the list, ask  to be added to the list,  make suggestions about the
contents and policy, etc. Because this  address was always a human being,
people  knew and  expected to  be  talking to  a  human being,  not to  a
computer.  Unfortunately, some  recent  list  management packages  screen
incoming  messages  to  the  "listname-Request" address  and  attempt  to
determine whether they are requests to  join or leave the list. They look
for words such as "subscribe", "add",  "leave", "off", and so on. If they
decide your message is  a request to join or leave  the list, they update
the list automatically;  otherwise, they forward the message  to the list
owners. Naturally, this means that if  you write to the list owners about
someone else's  unsuccessful attempts to  leave the list, you  stand good
chances of  being automatically removed  from the list, whereas  the list
owners will never receive your message. No one really benefits from this.
There is no  reliable mechanism to contact a human  being for assistance,
and you can never  be sure whether your request will  be interpreted as a
command or as a message to the list owners. This is why LISTSERV uses two
separate addresses, one for the people in  charge of the list and one for
the computer  that runs it.  This way you  always know what  will happen,
especially if you are writing in a language other than English.

In  any case,  if your  message was  a LISTSERV  command, you  should now
resend it  to [email-masked]  (or [email-masked]).  The list
owners know that  you have received this message and  may assume that you
will resend the  command on your own. You will  find instructions for the
most common administrative requests below.

*********************
* TO LEAVE THE LIST *
*********************

Write to [email-masked] (or [email-masked]) and, in the text
of your message (not the subject line), write: SIGNOFF OGL

********************
* TO JOIN THE LIST *
********************

Write to [email-masked] (or [email-masked]) and, in the text
of your message (not the subject line), write: SUBSCRIBE OGL

************************
* FOR MORE INFORMATION *
************************

Write to [email-masked] (or [email-masked]) and, in the text
of your message (not the subject  line), write: "HELP" or "INFO" (without
the quotes). HELP will  give you a short help message and  INFO a list of
the documents you can order.