You may find this humorous - if you are of a perverse bent and enjoy the

suffering of others.

This evening, I sent the following:

>Subject: unsubscribe ironsignbob at we.mediaone.net
>From: Robin Gibson <ironsignbob at mediaone.net>
>To: squeak-request at cs.uiuc.edu
>unsubscribe ironsignbob at we.mediaone.net

To which I received the reply...

>Subject: Re: unsubscribe
>From: squeak-request at cs.uiuc.edu
>To: ironsignbob at mediaone.net
>References: 1
>
> You have not been removed, I couldn't find your name on the list.
> What I did find were the following approximate matches:
>
> 247 bacon at mediaone.net    15778 disjectamembra at mediaone.net
> 247 bacon at mediaone.net    14685 38DF0053.CBC69209 at mediaone.net
> 325 terminus at mediaone.net 14057 disjectamembra at mediaone.net
> 325 terminus at mediaone.net  12783 38DF0053.CBC69209 at mediaone.net
> 462 ironsignbob at we.mediaone.net 12445 disjectamembra at mediaone.net
> 462 ironsignbob at we.mediaone.net  10274 38DF0053.CBC69209 at mediaone.net
> 486 david.johnson at usfamily.net  3466 disjectamembra at mediaone.net
> 571 gilbert at networkone.net 3451 disjectamembra at mediaone.net

Please note that my email addresses, <ironsignbob at we.mediaone.net> and
<disjectamembra at mediaone.net>, appear no less than 6 times on the
list...

So I replied:

>Subject: unsubscribe disjectamembra at mediaone.net
>From: Robin Gibson <disjectamembra at mediaone.net>
>To: squeak-request at cs.uiuc.edu
>References: 1 , 2
>unsubscribe disjectamembra at mediaone.net

And - rather promptly, may I add - the list server answered thusly:

>Subject: Re: unsubscribe disjectamembra at mediaone.net
>Date: 27 Mar 2000 06:32:24 -0000
>From: squeak-request at cs.uiuc.edu
>To: disjectamembra at mediaone.net
>References: 1 , 2 , 3
>
> You have not been removed, I couldn't find your name on the list.
> What I did find were the following approximate matches:

... you can guess the rest

I thought, "I must be going mad. This mailing list server must work
differently from every other system I've ever used." So I sent
(referring to the number in front of the name):

>Subject: unsubscribe 15778
>To: squeak-request at cs.uiuc.edu
>References: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4
>
> unsubscribe 15778

Surprise, surprise, surprise... same response from the list. A couple
more variations, same response.

So finally, desperately trying to figure out what bugs may have
manifested themselves in the list server, I wrote:

>Subject:  UNSUBSCRIBE DISJECTAMEMBRA at MEDIAONE.NET
>From: Robin Gibson <disjectamembra at mediaone.net>
>To: squeak-request at cs.uiuc.edu
>References: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8
>
>UNSUBSCRIBE DISJECTAMEMBRA at MEDIAONE.NET
>
> WTF?

All caps, you see. No, I wasn't shouting at it - that was my next move.
I was checking for case sensitivity. Finally, a different response:

>Subject: Re: UNSUBSCRIBE DISJECTAMEMBRA at MEDIAONE.NET
>Date: 27 Mar 2000 06:36:08 -0000
>From: squeak-request at cs.uiuc.edu
>To: disjectamembra at mediaone.net
>References: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9
>
>
>                  32752 bacon at mediaone.net
> bacon at mediaone.net
>
> You have been removed from the list.

Thus endeth the lesson...
.
.
.

I apologize in advance to bacon at mediaone.net, for any inconvenience I
may have caused him (I hope it's a him).

I might ask that bacon at mediaone.net unsubscribe me from the list, but I
feel I may be expecting a little too much consistency from the
list-serve.

I have thought also of attempting to randomly unsubscribe other people,
hoping that things would fall my way eventually (rather like playing the

lottery) - unfortunately, an undeserved streak of morality precludes
such a venture.

I welcome any suggestions.

Gratefully,
Robin Gibson <something at something.something>