[LMB] Mailing list

[Michael R N Dolbear]

> From: Michael Bauminger <lmblist at mikebomb.com>
> Date: 01 January 2008 06:51

> You do not need to know your password to unsubscribe from 
> this list if you follow this link 
> http://lists.herald.co.uk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lois-bujold 
> to begin the unsubscribe process. You do, however, have to 
> click through a screen or two, then respond to the 
> confirmation email that you want to unsubscribe.
> 
> It should be possible to design a link that can go at the 
> bottom of every list email that would contain the receiver's 
> email address, so that if clicked, it would take the 
> receiver directly to the unsubscribe page for that receiver. 
> However, it would mean work for our beloved listmistress, 
> Melanie Dymond Harper, to design that link and it would 
> probably still require the subscriber to respond to an 
> unsubscribe confirmation email. Since we only get about one 
> or two of these "unsubscribe me" people a year, it is 
> probably not worth the effort.

Further, that change would significantly increase the number of  electrons
who are terribly inconvenienced by the operation of the list. As Mel
remarked when dealing with the newbie who reported the list as spam, in
normal operation the server sends a unique email only to every ISP whereas
the change discussed requires a unique mail to every listee.

Altering the boilerplate on each list and digest from

http://lists.herald.co.uk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lois-bujold

to "To unsubscribe or change your list options go to" {URL}
and putting an additional unsubscribe link at the top might be suitable.

Perhap Scott Raun, who uses the same listserv application, might comment ?