[plug] Mailman goodness (was: unsubscibe ATTN: LIST OWNER)

[James Andrewartha]

On Mon, 26 Mar 2001, The Thought Assassin wrote:

> On Mon, 26 Mar 2001, Mike wrote:
> > 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?

Not wanting to sound like a broken record, but ...
Mailman only processes unsubscribe requests to the list-request
alias. Messages that appear to be admin requests sent to the main list
address get held by the mailing list for the list owner to approve (if
it's not a request) or deny (and send a short message explaining where to
send requests)

> > 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.

Well mailman doesn't do anything other than hold the message for the list
admin to approve or deny. It will never unsub someone who posts to the
main list. Unless the admin unsubscribes them, but that's human
intervention, it's not automatic.


-- 
"There's nobody getting rich  |  TRS-80                UCC Treasurer
 writing software that I      |  Email:    trs80(a)ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au
 know of" - Bill Gates, 1980  |  Web:       http://trs80.ucc.asn.au/