misdirected messages

[Ray Osborn]

At the risk of adding to the list of unwanted messages to the Neutron
Scattering Mailing List, I thought I should answer the following query
quickly before it triggers any more correspondence.  I am repeating
information that should have been in the welcome message sent to you when
you first subscribed.

Any E-mail messages sent to <NEUTRON at ANL.GOV> will be forwarded to all the
list subscribers without any intervening moderator action.  However, it is
also possible to obtain administrative information about the list by
sending a message to <NEUTRON-REQUEST at ANL.GOV>.  For example, to obtain a
list of current subscribers, send a message with the following text

REVIEW
QUIT

in the body of the message and without any subject header.  The
NEUTRON-REQUEST address is also to be used to "unsubscribe" from the list.

Unfortunately, a couple of subscribers have recently sent this request to
the list address so that we have all received a copy.  At present, we do
not filter messages posted to <NEUTRON at ANL.GOV> although we could look into
doing that if the number of misdirected messages increases.  Although we
currently have about 550 subscribers, we have only received seven or eight
misdirected messages in the last year so it is not a major problem.

I think it would also be helpful to raise one other source of confusion.
When you first subscribe to the mailing list, the "From:" header of your
E-mail message is used as the subscription address.  This is the address to
which all postings will be forwarded.  When you try and post a message
yourself, the List Server first checks that you are a list subscriber by
comparing this subscription address with the new posting's "From:" header.
If they don't match, the posting will not be forwarded to the list.  It is
therefore important that you post messages from the same mail address that
you used to subscribe (unless you can modify the "From:" field, as is
possible with mail clients like Eudora).  There is nothing to prevent you
from subscribing again if you can't access your old mail account, so this
shouldn't be a limitation.

If you have any problems with the operation of the Neutron Scattering
Mailing List, please contact the list administrator, Tom Worlton
<TGWorlton at anl.gov>.

> Date: Mon, 06 May 1996 17:34:28 -0500
> From: Gary Etheridge <garyte at ix.netcom.com>
> Reply-To: Gary Etheridge <garyte at ix.netcom.com>
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> To: neutron at anpns1.pns.anl.gov
> Subject: misdirected messages
>
> Dear site administrator,
>         I've have been receiving messages addressed to your email address
>of the form:
>
> REVIEW neutron
> QUIT
>
> I don't know if they are copies sent ot me or what else. Could you please
>look into the problem.
>
> Thank You
>
> Gary Etheridge
>

------------------------------------------------------
Dr Ray Osborn                  Tel: +1 (708) 252-9011
Materials Science Division     Fax: +1 (708) 252-7777
Argonne National Laboratory    E-mail: ROsborn at anl.gov
Argonne, IL 60439-4845