[1840] in java-interest
"unsubcribe" mental virus
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Tim Lindholm)
Mon Sep 18 19:32:55 1995
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 1995 11:15:28 -0700
From: lindholm@scndprsn.Eng.Sun.COM (Tim Lindholm)
To: java-interest@java.Eng.Sun.COM
Hi folks,
Over the weekend and into today I've seen a whole lot of messages to
java-interest where people are apparently trying to unsubscribe from
the mailing list by mailing "unsubcribe" [sic] messages. The number
and consistency of these messages suggests that what started as a typo
has taken root as a mental virus. I'd like to stop it.
Most people probably understand this, but "unsubcribe" messages are NOT
the way to unsubscribe from this mailing list. The majordomo mailing
list server normally tries to filter out misdirected administrative
messages like unsubscribe requests from list traffic. This is usually
pretty effective, but when the writer doesn't spell the administrative
command correctly the filter doesn't catch it. Hence, when you send
"unsubcribe", it does NOT get you unsubscribed, and it DOES send junk
mail in your name to the thousands of people on java-interest and
java-interest-digest.
To unsubscribe from the mailing list you normally can send a message to
majordomo@java.sun.com with "unsubscribe" in the body. If that doesn't
work, it's probably because you are on the list as some other address
than the one your mail appears to be from. In that case you can mail
majordomo messages of the form "which <substring>", and majordomo will
mail back to you all addresses on all the lists that contain the
<substring> that you supplied. If you still can't figure it out, you
can mail "who <mailing list>", and majordomo will mail you back a list
of all the addresses subscribed to <mailing list>. Once you know the
address you are subscribed under, mail majordomo a message with
"unsubscribe <that address>" in the body. Majordomo will send a
confirmation of your unsubscription.
Keep in mind that mail that has already been queued will not be aborted
by unsubscribing, so mail may continue to come for some hours afterward.
It should stop within a day.
-- Tim
-
Note to Sun employees: this is an EXTERNAL mailing list!
Info: send 'help' to java-interest-request@java.sun.com
