plaugue of unsubscribes

I've started sending mail to postmasters when I get one of those "take me 
off your list!" messages.  

I explain that the user is on a high volume list, that he wants off, but
that he seems unwilling or unable to do it himself.  He's harassing the
members of the list, who don't have the ability to remove him, and he 
doesn't seem to be reading our replies to his "take me off!" messages, 
which tell him how to solve his problem.

Then I ask the postmaster to explain how to get off the list to the user.

These guys are abusing email, and since they don't read our mail, the 
postmaster is the only solution.  Perhaps if a few of us start writing to 
the postmasters, they'll help the user figure out how to get off.

On Thu, 18 Apr 1996, Alex Strasheim wrote:

> I've started sending mail to postmasters when I get one of those "take me
> off your list!" messages.
[snip]

See John's message about the forged subscribes.  It sounds like these
folks may have never used a mailing list and didn't want to.  Can't really
blame them for being upset at receiving hundreds of pieces of email that
they didn't ask for.

What still confuses me is the number of people who asked to be
"unsubscrived."  Seems like an odd coincidence that all those folks would
miss the B key.  Some had done it severeal times in the same message.  I
wonder if they were totally set up -- if they got mail telling them to
"unsubscrive."  Some people's idea of fun boggles me...

Rich

______________________________________________________________________
Rich Burroughs  richieb@teleport.com  http://www.teleport.com/~richieb
See my Blue Ribbon Page at http://www.teleport.com/~richieb/blueribbon
New EF zine "cause for alarm" - http://www.teleport.com/~richieb/cause

On Thu, 18 Apr 1996, Alex Strasheim wrote:

> I've started sending mail to postmasters when I get one of those "take me 
> off your list!" messages.  

	Yes, as you have probably already read, my postmaster received such 
a message from you about my supposed lack of knowledge when it comes to 
unsubscribing.  He had quite a good laugh before asking me whether I had 
removed my brain while reading mail..

	BTW, I returned the favor with the above mentioned response to your 
initial letter.  Please be more careful in the future.

Bruce Marshall