Re: ADMIN: Re: OT How do I unsubscribe?

["Sandy Harris" <sharris -at- dkl -dot- com>]

Iain Harrison wrote:
 
> TechComm: ...
> To unsubscribe: LEAVE TECHCOMM as an email body to
> list -at- user -dot- itconsult -dot- co -dot- uk

> To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-9640N -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
> Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- 

There's another documentation-related issue here, doing things
in standard consistent ways to minimize user confusion.

If I wanted to unsubscribe, I'd mail techwr-l-request -at- raycomm -dot- com
the one-line message "unsubscribe". To unsubscribe from techcomm,
I'd mail techcomm-request.

I'd be quite upset if those didn't work.

This has been an oral tradition standard since before I started
using mailing lists, i.e. at least 15 years.

The RFC describing this is currently at "proposed standard"
in the IETF process.

http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/htbin/rfc/rfc2142.html

The relevant section:

6.  MAILING LIST ADMINISTRATION MAILBOX

   Mailing lists have an administrative mailbox name to which add/drop
   requests and other meta-queries can be sent.

   For a mailing list whose submission mailbox name is:

      <LIST -at- DOMAIN>

   there MUST be the administrative mailbox name:

      <LIST-REQUEST -at- DOMAIN>

   Distribution List management software, such as MajorDomo and
   Listserv, also have a single mailbox name associated with the
   software on that system -- usually the name of the software -- rather
   than a particular list on that system.  Use of such mailbox names
   requires participants to know the type of list software employed at
   the site.  This is problematic.  Consequently:

      LIST-SPECIFIC (-REQUEST) MAILBOX NAMES ARE REQUIRED,
      INDEPENDENT OF THE AVAILABILITY OF GENERIC LIST SOFTWARE
      MAILBOX NAMES.