[plug] unsubscibe ATTN: LIST OWNER

[The Thought Assassin]

On Mon, 26 Mar 2001, Mike wrote:
> At 11:25 PM 25/3/2001 +0800, you wrote:
> >  OK, now all you Linux evangelists are going to rave on about attracting
> >newbies to further the Great Cause. But wouldnt your energies be better
> >directed if we weed out the hopeless cases first?
> Its very sad you must label people this way because they showed laziness
> at the time of sending an unsub message to the list

If they are trying to unsubscribe, I'd say "hopeless" is the right label.

> - some people still don't know the difference between the mail list and
> the 'instruction' list

MmHmm but those who do value the distinction.

> in fact, these days shouldn't the software be smart enough to
> weed out emails meant for the admin address -

Hell no. I sent an email to the list with a body consisting of the word
"unsubscribe" only a month or so ago. Some would even call it a valuable
contribution to the list. I would have been mortified if I'd been
unsubscribed. How would you distinguish between that message and the one
from mr. Helpdesk?

> why is it so hard for people to come up with relational s/w or even
> deadpan simple s/w to handle unsub requests with allowances for most
> spelling variations ?

Because software does not understand semantics, only syntax. Only a human
who actively reads the list would be able to filter things accurately,
because it requires understanding of the content, not just the form.

> This does not make them lazy or hopeless, unless you want to label
> yourself an arrogant elitist pedant !

Yep, that sounds like me,

-Greg Mildenhall