From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 12996 invoked by alias); 23 Aug 2006 18:12:27 -0000 Received: (qmail 12935 invoked by uid 22791); 23 Aug 2006 18:12:25 -0000 X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org Received: from pool-71-248-179-229.bstnma.fios.verizon.net (HELO cgf.cx) (71.248.179.229) by sourceware.org (qpsmtpd/0.31) with ESMTP; Wed, 23 Aug 2006 18:12:24 +0000 Received: by cgf.cx (Postfix, from userid 201) id 88E8413C042; Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:12:22 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2006 18:17:00 -0000 From: Christopher Faylor To: overseers@sourceware.org Subject: Re: FW: confirm unsubscribe from cygwin@cygwin.com Message-ID: <20060823181222.GB23601@trixie.casa.cgf.cx> Mail-Followup-To: overseers@sourceware.org References: <025a01c6c6d6$3fc84bb0$a501a8c0@CAM.ARTIMI.COM> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <025a01c6c6d6$3fc84bb0$a501a8c0@CAM.ARTIMI.COM> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.11 Mailing-List: contact overseers-help@sourceware.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: overseers-owner@sourceware.org X-SW-Source: 2006-q3/txt/msg00079.txt.bz2 On Wed, Aug 23, 2006 at 06:04:52PM +0100, Dave Korn wrote: > Afternoon all! > >> To confirm that you would like >> >> dave.korn@artimi... >> >> removed from the cygwin mailing list, please send an empty reply >> to this address: >> >> cygwin-uc.1155911681. [...snip...] > > >I just went through several rounds of off-list email exchanges with a >guy who was having trouble unsubscribing from the list. It seemed like >he was doing everything right, but what it turned out in the end was >that he was receiving all these mails that said "confirm unsubscribe >from ..." and reading that as meaning that the mail confirmed he was >unsubscribed, so he wasn't replying to them. His English wasn't very >good and that phrase isn't immediately obvious that it's an verb rather >than a noun, to a non-native speaker who isn't aware of the subtle >differences between 'confirm' and 'a confirmation'. > >Could we perhaps tweak the subject lines so that it says "Please reply >to confirm unsubscribe from @" instead? It would >more clearly indicate to non-english speakers that further action is >still required on their part. No, I don't think so. The language in the response is pretty clear: To confirm that you would like !A removed from the <#l#> mailing list, please send an empty reply to this address: !R This is the same language that we've been using for ten years so I don't rebuild ezmlm just because one person thought they didn't have to read the contents of the messages they were receiving. cgf