Hi folks!

As ever, a lot of administrative overhead is generated when
traffic starts picking up on a distribution list that has been
silent for a while. During any given month on a list the size of
ICOM-L, more than a few e-mailboxes will be abandoned by members
who haven't bothered first to remove their names. This doesn't
make much of a difference as long as nothing is being sent to the
list. When visible activity starts, the list manager is inundated
both with undelivered messages bouncing from the terminated
mailboxes and by sundry error messages from e-mail systems that
don't like undeliverable mail being sent to them.

Although tedious, dealing with that sort of thing is all in a
day's work. The gratification of seeing a list in active use is
more than enough reward. Decidedly less easy to take in stride is
the flood of messages that originates with list members who
couldn't be bothered to head the instructions received when they
joined the list, most particularly regarding what to do if ever
they wished to remove their addresses from the list.

Sending "Please remove me from the list" demands to the list,
itself, annoys everyone on it. Sending them to an administrator
who may be operating dozens of lists, in addition to being a
nuisance, can serve no useful purpose.

If you wish to remove your name from ICOM-L all you need do is
send a message to

     [log in to unmask]

containing the command

     UNSUBSCRIBE ICOM-L

If you address any such request to ICOM-L it will be discarded.
If you send it to me, personally, it will also be discarded
unless accompanied by a convincing explanation of why you were
not able to use the automated facility.

Cary Karp <[log in to unmask]>
ICOM-L Listowner