Below is a sample of the initial email a subscriber receives from Listserv:

You have been added to the LISTNAME mailing list (LISTTITLE) by OWNEROFLIST <OWNERSEMAIL@WORCESTER.EDU>.

Please save this message for future  reference, especially if this is the first time you are subscribing to an electronic mailing list. If you ever need to leave  the list, you will find the  necessary instructions below. Perhaps  more importantly,  saving a  copy of  this message  (and of  all future subscription notices  from other mailing lists) in  a special mail folder will give you instant access to the list of mailing lists that you are subscribed  to. This may  prove very useful the  next time you  go on vacation and  need to leave  the lists temporarily so  as not to  fill up your  mailbox while  you  are away!  You should  also  save the  "welcome messages" from the  list owners that you will  occasionally receive after subscribing to a new list.

To send  a message to  all the people  currently subscribed to  the list, just  send  mail  to  LISTNAME@LISTSERV.WORCESTER.EDU.  This  is  called "sending mail to the list," because you send mail to a single address and LISTSERV  makes copies  for  all  the people  who  have subscribed.  This address  (LISTNAME@LISTSERV.WORCESTER.EDU)  is  also  called  the  "list address." You must never  try to send any command to  that address, as it would be distributed to all the  people who have subscribed. All commands must be sent to  the "LISTSERV address," LISTSERV@LISTSERV.WORCESTER.EDU.

It is  very important to understand  the difference between the  two, but fortunately it  is not complicated.  The LISTSERV  address is like  a FAX number that connects you to a machine, whereas the list address is like a normal voice line connecting  you to a person. If you  make a mistake and dial the FAX number when you wanted  to talk to someone on the phone, you will quickly  realize that you used  the wrong number and  call again. No harm will have been done. If on the other hand you accidentally make your FAX call  someone's voice  line, the  person receiving  the call  will be inconvenienced, especially if your FAX then re-dials every 5 minutes. The fact that  most people  will eventually  connect the  FAX machine  to the voice line to  allow the FAX to  go through and make the  calls stop does not mean  that you  should continue  to send FAXes  to the  voice number. People would just get mad at you.  It works pretty much the same way with mailing  lists, with  the difference  that  you are  calling hundreds  or thousands of people  at the same time, and consequently  you can expect a lot of people to get upset if  you consistently send commands to the list address.

You  may leave  the list  at any  time by  sending a  "SIGNOFF LISTNAME" command to  LISTSERV@LISTSERV.WORCESTER.EDU. You  can also  tell LISTSERV how you want it to confirm the  receipt of messages you send to the list. If you do not trust the system,  send a "SET LISTNAME REPRO" command and LISTSERV will send you  a copy of your own messages, so  that you can see that the  message was  distributed and  did not get  damaged on  the way. After a while  you may find that this is  getting annoying, especially if your mail program does not tell you  that the message is from you when it informs you that new mail has arrived  from LISTNAME. If you send a "SET LISTNAME  ACK  NOREPRO"   command,  LISTSERV  will  mail   you  a  short acknowledgement  instead,  which  will  look different  in  your  mailbox directory. With most mail programs you will know immediately that this is an  acknowledgement  you  can  read  later. Finally,  you  can  turn  off acknowledgements completely with "SET LISTNAME NOACK NOREPRO".

Contributions sent to this list are automatically archived. You can get a list  of the  available archive  files  by sending  an "INDEX  LISTNAME" command  to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.WORCESTER.EDU.  You  can  then order  these files  with  a  "GET  LISTNAME LOGxxxx"  command,  or  using  LISTSERV's database  search facilities.  Send an  "INFO DATABASE"  command for  more information on the latter.

This  list is  available  in digest  form.  If you  wish  to receive  the digested  version of  the postings,  just  issue a  SET LISTNAME  DIGEST command.

Please note that  it is presently possible for anybody  to determine that you are signed  up to the list  through the use of  the "REVIEW" command, which returns the e-mail address and  name of all the subscribers. If you do not want your name to be visible, just issue a "SET LISTNAME CONCEAL" command.