This page contains samples of the message you send to subscribe to an electronic mailing list; a message asking you to confirm your subscription; and the "welcome" message sent to give you information about the list, including guidelines for using it, subscribing, unsubscribing, etc.
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Your command:
SUBSCRIBE SF-LIT Ted Bade
has been received. You must now reply to this message (as explained
below) to complete your subscription. The purpose of this confirmation
procedure is to check that the address LISTSERV is about to add to the
list for your subscription is reachable. This is a typical procedure for
high-volume lists and all new subscribers are subjected to it - you are
not being singled out. Every effort has been made to make this
verification as simple and painless as possible. Thanks in advance for
your cooperation.
To confirm the execution of your command, simply reply to the present
message and type "ok" (without the quotes) as the text of your message.
Just the word "ok" - do not retype the command. This procedure will work
with any mail program that fully conforms to the Internet standards for
electronic mail. If you receive an error message, try sending a new
message to LISTSERV@RS8.LOC.GOV (without using the "reply" function -
this is very important) and type "ok 083FD71B" as the text of your
message.
Finally, your command will be cancelled automatically if LISTSERV does
not receive your confirmation within 48h. After that time, you must start
over and resend the command to get a new confirmation code. If you change
your mind and decide that you do NOT want to confirm the command, simply
discard the present message and let the request expire on its own.
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(This is a long message. Move to the bottom of the screen and jump back to the presentation when you have read enough)
Sun, 13 Feb 2000 15:54:12 Your subscription to the SF-LIT list (Science Fiction and Fantasy Listserv) has been accepted. Please save this message for future reference, especially if this is the first time you are subscribing to an electronic mailing list. If you ever need to leave the list, you will find the necessary instructions below. Perhaps more importantly, saving a copy of this message (and of all future subscription notices from other mailing lists) in a special mail folder will give you instant access to the list of mailing lists that you are subscribed to. This may prove very useful the next time you go on vacation and need to leave the lists temporarily so as not to fill up your mailbox while you are away! You should also save the "welcome messages" from the list owners that you will occasionally receive after subscribing to a new list. To send a message to all the people currently subscribed to the list, just send mail to SF-LIT@RS8.LOC.GOV. This is called "sending mail to the list," because you send mail to a single address and LISTSERV makes copies for all the people who have subscribed. This address (SF-LIT@RS8.LOC.GOV) is also called the "list address." You must never try to send any command to that address, as it would be distributed to all the people who have subscribed. All commands must be sent to the "LISTSERV address," LISTSERV@RS8.LOC.GOV. It is very important to understand the difference between the two, but fortunately it is not complicated. The LISTSERV address is like a FAX number that connects you to a machine, whereas the list address is like a normal voice line connecting you to a person. If you make a mistake and dial the FAX number when you wanted to talk to someone on the phone, you will quickly realize that you used the wrong number and call again. No harm will have been done. If on the other hand you accidentally make your FAX call someone's voice line, the person receiving the call will be inconvenienced, especially if your FAX then re-dials every 5 minutes. The fact that most people will eventually connect the FAX machine to the voice line to allow the FAX to go through and make the calls stop does not mean that you should continue to send FAXes to the voice number. People would just get mad at you. It works pretty much the same way with mailing lists, with the difference that you are calling hundreds or thousands of people at the same time, and consequently you can expect a lot of people to get upset if you consistently send commands to the list address. You may leave the list at any time by sending a "SIGNOFF SF-LIT" command to LISTSERV@RS8.LOC.GOV. You can also tell LISTSERV how you want it to confirm the receipt of messages you send to the list. If you do not trust the system, send a "SET SF-LIT REPRO" command and LISTSERV will send you a copy of your own messages, so that you can see that the message was distributed and did not get damaged on the way. After a while you may find that this is getting annoying, especially if your mail program does not tell you that the message is from you when it informs you that new mail has arrived from SF-LIT. If you send a "SET SF-LIT ACK NOREPRO" command, LISTSERV will mail you a short acknowledgement instead, which will look different in your mailbox directory. With most mail programs you will know immediately that this is an acknowledgement you can read later. Finally, you can turn off acknowledgements completely with "SET SF-LIT NOACK NOREPRO". Following instructions from the list owner, your subscription options have been set to "MIME" rather than the usual LISTSERV defaults. For more information about subscription options, send a "QUERY SF-LIT" command to LISTSERV@RS8.LOC.GOV. Contributions sent to this list are automatically archived. You can get a list of the available archive files by sending an "INDEX SF-LIT" command to LISTSERV@RS8.LOC.GOV. You can then order these files with a "GET SF-LIT LOGxxxx" command, or using LISTSERV's database search facilities. Send an "INFO DATABASE" command for more information on the latter. This list is available in digest form. If you wish to receive the digested version of the postings, just issue a SET SF-LIT DIGEST command. Please note that it is presently possible for other people to determine that you are signed up to the list through the use of the "REVIEW" command, which returns the e-mail address and name of all the subscribers. If you do not want your name to be visible, just issue a "SET SF-LIT CONCEAL" command. More information on LISTSERV commands can be found in the LISTSERV reference card, which you can retrieve by sending an "INFO REFCARD" command to LISTSERV@RS8.LOC.GOV.
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