[EMAIL PROTECTED] (L. Cranswick) wrote:
>I have had some other people say they got dropped off the Rietveld list
>and were of the opinion they must have broken the unwritten
>law somewhere. For Alan: is there some anarchic sub-routines
>happening on the Listserv at ILL?
Lachlan, the listserver is simply a machine. There are no anarchic
sub-routines and machines don't (intentionally :-) persecute people.
Neither do I !
Even if I do send a command to remove a particular address that is
generating error messages, the listserver then automatically sends an email
to that address reporting that it has been removed. The subscriber should
check their return address, and send a new "SUBSCRIBE Rietveld_L" command
in the BODY of a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. There is no way that people
can be silently removed (except by editing the mailing list directly on the
server, which is NEVER done).
If people "drop off the mailing list" it is almost certainly because their
local mailserver has been re-configured, or else they have subscribed or
re-subscribed with a return email address that, after some time perhaps, is
no longer delivered by their local server.
The well-known example you gave is just such a case ! He is STILL ON the
Rietveld list, but apparently the address with which he subscribed is no
longer forwarded to him. This is because his address contains the name of a
local workstation, a common error. For example, if instead of
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> I used something like <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> that might
work UNTIL "my-machine" is replaced by "my-new-machine", or perhaps the
local routing is changed. It's a bit like asking a machine to deliver a
letter to me at Room 115, Building 4, Avenue des Martyrs, etc instead of
simply to ILL - it would work until I changed room, or the council changed
the name of the street (which they just did :-)
That is why I have repeatedly asked people to try sending an email to
themselves to check what their PC and mailserver is putting into their
headers. When they SUBSCRIBE to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, they should receive an
automatic acknowledgment; they should look to see what address is being
used, and if it is not quite correct, SIGNOFF, correct their return
address, then SUBSCRIBE again (in that order). Surprisingly, even
experienced computer users are sometimes caught out by this.
Anyone with doubts about this should try sending the command "HELP" or even
"REV RIETVELD_L" in the BODY of a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.
Lachlan, to be convinced that the listserver is "stupid but honest" you
only have to look at the emails it forwards to everyone when some user
sends UNSUBSCRIBE to the whole list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> instead of to the
listserver <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
BTW, they often do that after long messages (like this one :-)
Alan H.
Dr Alan W. Hewat, Diffraction Group Leader,
Institut Laue-Langevin Grenoble FRANCE <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> tel (33) 4.76.20.72.13
ftp://ftp.ill.fr/pub/dif fax (33) 4.76.20.76.48 http://www.ill.fr/dif/
