Now that the huge thread about handling unsubscribe difficulties seems to have died down, I thought I'd post this for those who didn't follow it, but might wonder what we can do for people who ask to be unsubscribed. The main question is whether the request is coming from a subscriber or not. The only reliable way to tell is to look in the full header at the Delivered To information; if that shows "moderator for users@openoffice.org" the user is not subscribed from this account, but somehow they're receiving the list traffic and want it to stop. (I'm putting examples of possible responses here, but there are obviously lots more possibilities. If you have other wording you'd prefer, maybe you can post it here so we can all see it.)

If such a request comes in from a subscribed user (say, [EMAIL PROTECTED]), we can actually get them most of the way there by replying *with a cc to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with a message like:

*You should soon be getting an unsubscribe confirmation message. Once you respond to that, your subscription will be canceled. If you do not receive such a message within a day or so, you can try contacting [EMAIL PROTECTED] to get a person with authority to unsubscribe you. There is nothing more that the users on this list can do to help. Goodbye, and we'll hope to hear from you again some day.*

If the user is not subscribed with this account, we can explain how to deal with it, but telling them about [EMAIL PROTECTED] won't do them any good right now. A possible message is:

*This account ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) is not the one that is subscribed to the list. In order to unsubscribe, you will first have to determine the subscribed account that is redirecting the list messages to you. Look at this message, and if necessary check the full header information, to see what account is receiving the message from [EMAIL PROTECTED] Suppose it is [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can then send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] The subject and content will be ignored, only the address is important, but be careful with the punctuation.

[EMAIL PROTECTED] should then soon get an unsubscribe confirmation message. If you have access to that account, log on to it and respond to the message. Or if you get the confirmation message redirected to your [EMAIL PROTECTED] account, respond to it. The subscription should then be canceled. If the subscribed account is not one to which you have access, contact the account owner (if known), or notify the abuse reporting system of the account's service provider so they can take appropriate action. This information can generally be found on the provider's website, probably as part of its usage terms and conditions.

If you do not receive the unsubscribe confirmation message within a day or so, you can try contacting [EMAIL PROTECTED] to get a person with authority to unsubscribe the account. There is nothing more that the users on this list can do to help. Goodbye, and we'll hope to hear from you again some day.*

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