To all HOCKEY-L subscribers and posters: These changes are temporary; should things go smoothly, the "temporary" part of this will become permanent. :-) 1. Subscriptions to HOCKEY-L are now "confirmed" by a procedure called the "OK procedure". When someone subscribes, LISTSERV will send mail to them asking them to reply with a unique "ticket". Complete directions are in that mail. Essentially, the new subscriber simply replies to the mail saying OK. When LISTSERV receives the reply, the subscription is completed and the welcoming messages are sent. This procedure eases my task in that one must have a valid mail address to subscribe ... something that is untrue all too many times. 2. The new subscriber is placed in "REVIEW" status. That means that any posting will come to the moderator (me) instead of being automatically distributed to the list. I will not edit your post, but will cause it to be distributed after I have verified that it is not a spam or other posting unrelated to college hockey. My intention is to then change the new subscriber/poster REVIEW status to NOREVIEW, allowing subsequent direct posting and HOCKEY-L distribution as in the past. This procedure allows us to moderate the 1st post of new subscribers, hopefully cutting down garbage to the list. 3. All current subscribers have been set to "NOREVIEW" status, enabling direct posting as in the past. 4. All non-subscriber postings will be moderated. At my discretion, I will add a "NOMAIL" subscription for such contributors. This procedure allows us to stop unwanted spams from non-subscribers. The down side is that contributors that read HOCKEY-L via a local redistribution will have their posting distributions delayed. If/when I add the "NOMAIL" subscription, the contributions will no longer be delayed/moderated for that person. 5. Subscribers to HOCKEY-D are considered to be subscribers of HOCKEY-L for the purposes of these new procedures. That is, your HOCKEY-D subscription gives you unmoderated posting privilege as in the past. 6. Certain delivery errors are now managed by LISTSERV rather than your administrator. If your mail system uses certain standard procedures when rejecting mail, LISTSERV will monitor your subscription. The rejections will be monitored for about 5 days. If the problem does not clear, the subscription will be removed; if 5 days without a rejection pass, then monitoring ceases (lucky you!). This procedure allows some subscriptions to survive poor technician procedures and/or flaky weekend mail delivery (problems at or near your site, not the U Maine System). Subscriptions where rejected HOCKEY-L distributions are not processed automatically by LISTSERV will be removed immediately, as in the past. 7. Please do not reply to this mail on HOCKEY-L! If you have questions, suggestions or comments on these new procedures, please contact the list administrator privately at the address below or mail your questions/comments to the college hockey meta-list (the mailing list that discusses HOCKEY-L), [log in to unmask] If you wish a subscription to HOCKEY, send mail to [log in to unmask] and in the body enter subscribe hockey Your Name 8. (There will be additional changes this summer, but I'm not prepared to announce or place them into effect just yet). Yours in college hockey, Wayne Smith The College Hockey Discussion List administrator Systems Group - CAPS BITNET/CREN: wts@maine University of Maine System internet: [log in to unmask]