[plug] Unsubscribe (and a request for help)

[Matt Kemner]

This is getting beyond a joke.

60 messages (and counting) all repeating the same thing over and over
again.  I don't have time to reply to each message individually so I will
attempt to cover all issues here.

On Mon, 26 Mar 2001, Christian wrote:

> Matt... who has to far remained conspicuously silent on this issue...

I've been afk most of the weekend. Saw a rather large bushfire just North
of Mandurah that pales in comparison to what was happening on this list at
the time.

Anyway, the main suggestions seem to be:
  
> 1: Send the instructions again.

As people on both sides of the argument have pointed out, adding a footer
to the list does not make any noticable difference, because of two main
problems:

1. People refuse to read instructions
2. The footers won't show up on HTML readers when reading HTML email,
   unless the footer munging software is clever enough to insert it at the
   bottom of the HTML attachment as well, and with the many variations of
   HTML mail available, a perfect solution will not be possible.

Therefore, at least for so long as I am maintainer of this list, there
will be no "This is how to unsubscribe from this list" footer added to
messages.

> 2: Change the instructions to meet the idiot's interpretation.

Are there any procmail experts on this list?
I would really appreciate someone having a quick look at
/var/list/plug/rc.submit (on spark) and tell me why the "divertcheck"
stuff (starting near line 59) isn't working.  That would at least solve
some of the problem.

It is supposed to intercept administrative requests and either deal with
them, or send them to the maintainer.  I have it set to deal with them,
because what will happen if someone sends an unsub message to the list,
they will get sent a confirmation message as usual - to prevent miscreants
from unsubscribing other people.  As a result, if you were to
intentionally send an unsub request to the list rather than the list
management address, you will instantly receive a message asking you to
confirm your unsubscription.. You will not be unsubscribed until you reply
to that message, including the magic cookie, so you will not lose any
messages, but you will need to resend your original message, modifying it
slightly to bypass the filter.

Unfortunately it doesn't work, nor has ever worked for me, but I've never
really cared enough to look into it closely.  I'm starting to think it is
a necessity though, if only to help avoid these flamewars every time
someone is too lazy to do a little thinking.

Therefore if would be good if someone could tell me what the problem with
it is.  If not, I will try and find a little time later to look for
myself, and if all else fails ask the smartlist gurus.

I'd really rather not change to alternative mailing list software, be they
mailman, or majordomo, because apart from this one thing smartlist is
working really well for me - and as the saying goes, if it ain't broke...

In the meantime, can this flamewar be over, please? pretty please?

 - Matt the frazzled.