Re: REMOVE!!! (there must be a better way)
Steve Lamb wrote:
> On Fri, 18 Sep 1998 00:06:27 -0400, Braden N. McDaniel wrote:
>
> >Me too. Anyone who knows what the current tagline means probably didn't have
> >to look for the information there in the first place. It's cute and all, but
> >isn't the whole point of the information being there to help inexperienced
> >users and minimize the number of "unsubscribe me" messages sent to the list?
> >To obfuscate this message strikes me as counterproductive.
>
> I see it a different way. Look at this way, the person was using Eudora,
> right? This is a Linux mailing list. Does the tag there work with Linux?
> Hell yeah, it works pretty much as a cut and paste. How much more simple do
> you want it to be? The fact this person was using Eudora is irrelevant
> since, last I checked, Eudora wasn't ported to Linux.
Ok, this is the second time this topic has come up (according to my recollection).
This time I'm just itching to drop my $0.02. Let us posit:
1) The 'Unsubscribe' trailer tag is present so that people can easily unsubscribe.
Evidence shows people often forget what's necessary to unsubscribe.
2) The 'Unsubscribe' tag is constructed so that a) it's small and unobtrusive--so as
not to add bytes unnecessarily to the message and not be too distracting--and b) too
provide as clear instructions as possible to reduce the chance that the would-be
unsubscriber, unable to unsubscribe following the instructions, becomes frustrated and
resorts to posting a 'Please unsubscribe me' to the list in general.
I assert that those most likely to unsubscribe are likely to be lacking facility in
Linux and unix in general. I also assert that such people are highly likely to a) have
been unsuccessful in installing/configure an MTA, which 'mail' requires to operate and
b) be confused by the command line enough not to understand from it that they can send
a message with any mail client with Subject='unsubscribe' to
debian-user-request@lists.debian.org.
So what would I suggest as a replacement? First, I think it would be nice to be able
to administer one's list membership from the debian web page. I myself have a perl cgi
which creates and sends such messages automagically which works with smartlist. But,
you say, that will make it so that people can (un)subscribe people other than
themselves. Without modifying smartlist this is true. As an alternative, let's just
change the 'Unsubscribe' tag to:
--
To unsubscribe send an email message to debian-user-request@lists.debian.org with
'unsubscribe' as the Subject.
Even better, we could bring our list technology into the '80s and do a
multipart/alternative message format with an HTML alternative which provided a
sophisticated mailto: tag and include the subject, body, and the whole thing in the
link.
--
Jens B. Jorgensen
jjorgens@bdsinc.com
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