Dear SERIALSTers,

This is to report a bit of a technical quirk that some of you have
begun to inquire about.

The moderators have been ignoring "it" in the hope that "it" would
quietly go away, but I got word this morning that "it" might be around
for another week or another month.  "It" is an odd and somewhat disconcerting
bracketted appendage that is being automatically added to subject lines
of messages leaving UVMVM (the machine that supports SERIALST) that are
bound for the Internet.  Some new mail routing software that is currently
in test mode is the cause of what some (many?) of you are seeing as
longer headers with the message:  "[via LSMTP -see http://www.lsoft.com]"
in the subject lines of messages.

Some subscribers -- mostly those with BITNET accounts -- are probably
not seeing this message (yet?) because BITNET mail is routed differently.
So far, moderating the list from the local UVMVM/BITNET, account has been
successful in preventing the bracketted message from being logged in the
SERIALST archives.

The moderators have no control over the appearance of this message
and we do not, in any way approve or endorse the message that we
think a great many subscribers are now seeing.  In fact, we're rather
hoping it will quietly disappear in the week(s) ahead.  In the meantime
we apologize for any confusion or inconvenience, and ask for your
patience as systems personnel at the University of Vermont gather the
data they need complete their testing.

Additional information (for inquiring minds) follows below.

    Birdie MacLennan
    SERIALST Listowner/Moderator    bmaclenn@uvmvm.uvm.edu
    University of Vermont           bmaclenn@moose.uvm.edu

 ======================================================================= 43
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 1996 09:50:49 -0500 (EST)
From: John Ryder <jsr@elk.uvm.edu>
To: bmaclenn@uvmvm.uvm.edu
cc: Ann Ercelawn <ERCELAA@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu>,
        Marcia Tuttle <tuttle@gibbs.oit.unc.edu>, rstuart@esf.uvm.edu,
        intaucaj@uvmvm.uvm.edu
Subject: the LSMTP/LSoft thing

In order to reduce the email workload on UVMVM we have just installed a
product called LSMTP from L-Soft International Inc. which runs on a
Windows NT platform and handles Internet mail routing. This product in
running is a trial mode and because of that is adding an extra message to
the subject line of each message posting to your discussion list...

  [via LSMTP - see www.lsoft.com]

We are sorry if this adds confusion to your postings, we should have
warned you, but it is imperative that we test LSMTP to improve performance
to DOSLIBR and other UVMVM systems. We want to use the trial version for a
week and if it proves successful, we will install a permanent version
without the extra message on the subject line.

We started testing LSMTP on Wednesday 2/21 for an hour and during the
day, Thursday and Friday. We shut it down for the weekend and just
brought it back up today and plan to leave it up until next Monday morning.

If you see any anomalies from your lists this week, or have any
questions I'd be very interested in hearing from you.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

  John Ryder, Listserv manager, 656-1183
     jsr@elk.uvm.edu