[sf-lug] help signing up a new user

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Christian Einfeldt (einfeldt at gmail.com):

> In both cases (reply to confirm and separate email) we received an
> error message saying that it was spam.  The error instructs us to
> contact the "postmaster" and I am not able to tell if there is
> anything that our SF-LUG webmasters can do to work around this
> problem.

Christian, you should never, ever _EVER_ send this sort of mail -to- any
mailing list.  Not ever.  What you've done is anologous to standing up
in the middle of a crowded cinema and saying "Hey, I'm having problems
seeing the movie from these seats."  Sure, you have a problem, but do
the other customer need to hear you shouting about it?  You've just
broadcast your (your friend's) personal problem all over a public forum
serving well over 200 people.

That is clueless.  That is rude.  On behalf of the global Internet, I
must ask:  Please do not ever do that again.

> Thanks in advance for your help.

There are over 200 people you've just bothered who would not be giving
"help", because they're the wrong people entirely.  Never EVER send
"administrivia" to a mailing list's membership -- always to the
lisadmin(s).

I'm not the administrator of this mailing list (only the sysadmin who
owns, funds, and operates the underlying machine), but _those_ are your
logical point of contact.  How can you find them?  Either of two ways.
(1) Right at the bottom of every post, you'll find:

> sf-lug mailing list
> sf-lug at linuxmafia.com
> http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo/sf-lug
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

That URL is of the "listinfo" page, at the bottom of which it says,
absolutely clear as day:

> sf-lug list run by jim at well.com, lx_rudis at sbcglobal.net

(2) Right inside the headers of each and every posting, it says:
> List-Help: <mailto:sf-lug-request at linuxmafia.com?subject=help>

Selecting that mailto link, again, reaches the listadmins -- which is
ALWAYS (absent any directive to the contrary) the place to send
administrative queries.


Actually, in this specific case, the Delivery Status Notification you
quoted _instructed_ you to take your problem to postmaster at linuxmafia.com:  


>      550-We apologise if you  have sent a legitimate 
>      550-message and it has been blocked.  If this is 
>      550-the case, please send mail to "postmaster" 
>      550-asking help in working around this problem. 
>      550-(Please cite this error result, verbatim.) 

_Why the frell didn't you?_  Hmm?  Did you really think it was a better
idea to ignore that directive and instead gratuitously bother 200+
people who are almost unanimously irrelevant to your problem?