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I'm on a lot of electronic mailing lists. A deluge of "unsubscribe" and "take me off this list" messages on multiple lists inspired the following, which I send out whenever it's needed. The feedback I get tells me it's useful.
When you send "unsubscribe" requests to an email list, it lands in the mailboxes of hundreds of people who can't unsubscribe you.
I can't unsubscribe you. Try the stuff below. Clip 'n' save these instructions for future reference.
Look at the messages you've been getting on the list. Do they have "how to unsubscribe" messages near the end, or an email address to use in a "List-Unsubscribe:" header at the top? If so, follow those instructions.
Most lists these days, including all lists hosted by the big two (Yahoo! Groups and Topica), have an "-unsubscribe" alias for this purpose. For example, if you're on the WHATEVER list, either WHATEVER-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com or WHATEVER-unsubscribe@topica.com would be the right address to use.
(For the rest of this memo, let's assume that the WHATEVER list is at example.com -- that is, the alias is WHATEVER@example.com. If the list has a name like "WHATEVER-L", you might try steps 6 and 7 first.)
Otherwise, first send a request to the "-request" alias. For our example, that would be WHATEVER-request@example.com. This is often read by a human being, so write accordingly. In theory, all email lists are supposed to implement this address (though Yahoo! Groups does not).
If you get no response from the above, send mail to the "majordomo" alias. That's majordomo@example.com for our example. If the list is administered by the majordomo software, you'll get instructions for unsubscribing mailed back to you.
If you get no response, send mail to the "owner-" alias. For our example, owner-WHATEVER@example.com. This should go to the human who administers the list.
If you get no response, send mail to "LISTSERV". For our example, that address would be LISTSERV@example.com. The text of your message should be "SIGNOFF WHATEVER".
If you get no response, send mail to the "listproc" alias. For our example, that address would be listproc@example.com. The text of your message should be "unsubscribe WHATEVER".
If you get no response, send mail to the site "postmaster". For our example, that address is postmaster@example.com. Mention that you tried the previous five steps, to no avail.
If you get no response, send mail to "root". Our example address is root@example.com. Mention that you tried the previous six steps, to no avail.
If -- and only if -- all the above fail, send a message to the list itself. Make it courteous, particularly since the vast majority of the people reading it can't do a thing about it. The message should say something like, "How do I get off this list?", not "UNSUBSCRIBE." Try to avoid setting off a bunch of "me too" messages by saying something like, "Please don't chime in with a bunch of 'I want to unsubscribe too' messages."
It's ridiculous that there are so many different ways to do this, and consequentially, so many email lists cluttered up with "UNSUBSCRIBE/ME TOO" messages. You'd think there'd be a standard of sorts, and there is: the "-request" alias dates back to the early days of the Internet.
Smart systems like majordomo actually (1) handle messages that were sent to the "-request" alias and (2) filter out the "UNSUBSCRIBE/ME TOO" messages. It's a shame that newer stuff has come along that doesn't do either of these things, but since it's on the web, people seem excited about it (gee whiz!) even though it's a huge step backwards in technology.
The "-unsubscribe" alias is a newer standard that's starting to gain ground, but that's no help for many of the older lists that haven't gotten around to implementing new features.
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