[ Should the word "been" have been added to the welcome message? ]
Santiago is correct. The word "been" is both extraneous and incorrect. The reasons are as follows: The original message says can be (paraphrased and) reordered as the less awkward: You have added tinnedpigflesh...to the subcriber list.... The new message says (again paraphrased and reordered): You have been added tinnedpigflesh...to the subscriber list.... The only time the word "been" would be appropriate is when [EMAIL PROTECTED] [0] is used as a form of direct address, which would require commas around the email address. The difference is that "You have added" is an emphatic[1] form of "You added", which is in the active voice, as in: You added John. Note the usage of the direct object (John) in that sentence. Contrast this with the usage of the passive voice, as in: You have been added. In the former case, you are the subject and John is the object; you did the action (adding) and John received it. In the latter case, you are the object and some unknown entity is the subject; the other entity did the action (adding) and you received it.[2] I would also say that while the new message is incorrect, the old one is awkward. My recommendation, therefore, is: You have added the mail address $subscraddr to the subscriber list of $listaddr. This is because in English, it people generally want to know (in order): the subject (who did it), the verb (what happened), and the direct object (to whom was it done). The indirect object (in this case, "to the subscriber list of...") is tangential to the other three things, at least from a grammatical point of view. In addition, the period does not matter at the end of the sentence because it merely makes the hostname fully qualified should it be interpreted as part of an email address. As for my credentials, I've lived in Houston, Texas, US for all of my (almost) 22 years, and am a native speaker of English. To sum up, I do not pretend to be an authoritative grammarian, but I do speak the language, and native speakers understand me when I am not being ambiguous or obtuse. Hope this helps, and thank you for giving me an opportunity to play a member of the grammar police. [0] This is a spamtrap; you should not send to it. Unless, of course, you are a spammer, in which case: fire away! [1] Actually, this isn't exactly true, but it's close enough for this matter. [2] This is a major reason why usage of the passive voice is discouraged. Unless nobody actually knows or cares about who the actor is[3], the passive voice is poor usage. [3] Think of "Somebody vandalized my car" (active) versus "My car was vandalized" (passive). In this case, it is irelevant who the actor was; what is more important is that the car was vandalized, and therefore, in this case, the passive voice is preferred.
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