Newbie List Admin, Odd Subs, Please Help? [Long]
I'm a newbie list maintainer/administrator for 6 months now
on a three-year-old democratic mutual support 12-Step-focus
discussion list.
Six months ago this list changed providers. Since then it
averages two new subscribers a month. (But that's another story,
not relevant to this query.)
Suddenly 26 subscribes appeared within 14 days, taking our
subscriber list from a stable 455 to 480 in 2 weeks. Clusters of
unusual subscriptions began arriving, starting 10 Feb 98. All
were identical in the following respects:
1. No INFO file had been requested by even one of them,
2. yet All subscribed perfectly, using my preferred protocol of a
period in the Subject line (That protocol stated in list info)
3. All were from free web-based email accounts.
4. All were clustered in a burst of a few minutes,
then no more subs until the next burst, 4 days or so later.
5. All are digest subscriptions---without exception (individual
messages are available on this list)
Here's how the bursts look:
10 Feb, 4 subscribes (with timing of Authentication responses)
* @domain W> 10 Feb 98 06:47
* @domain X> 10 Feb 98 06:53
* @domain X> 10 Feb 98 06:55
* @domain X> 10 Feb 98 07:13
14 Feb, 9 subs - 7 from domain Y, 2 from domain Z
16 Feb, 6 subs - all from domain Y
20 Feb, 4 subs - all from domain Y
23 Feb, 3 subs - all from domain Y (with timing)
subscribe "super woman" <woman.super@domain.Y>
23 feb 98 07:03:26 Authenticated (initiated 20 Feb 16:42:14)
subscribe "why me" <w_me@domain.Y>
23 feb 98 07:05:16 07:05:16 (initiated 20 Feb 16:45:02)
subscribe "chess master" <chess_master@domain.Y>
23 feb 98 7:07 (initiated 20 Feb 16:47:08)
I wrote a friendly, brief note to the first subscriber in the
third "burst," asking where they had found this list. Two other
group officers inquired of two others, as well. No response.
Screening subscribers is not a realistic option; I'm assuming
this is an inside job. (A group business discussion/vote is
coming up, and a few members may have strong feelings about the
issue/people involved.) Any insider (or coached outsider) could
satisfactorily answer any screening questions.
First I thought somebody was recruiting people to speak up and
vote in a particular direction. But it could be one person's
creating all the subscriptions. Below I've listed some of the
subscribed "names," in case that gives anybody a "feel" for how
to approach this.
We're a very tame list, and this is totally new to me. I'm
at a loss.
My question is, can I find out from domain Y, for example,
whether the same person initiated all of those subscribes? Is
there anything else I can do?
All but one of the free-e-mail domains are U.S.-based. All are
big names---such as yahoo, mailexcite, mailcity, etc. Would the
free e-mail domains be able and willing to help me? Particularly
the one being used most?
Thanks in advance for any insights or help.
Sincerely,
Tommi Thompson, List Maintainer
MailTo:CAFGMain@best.com
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Names" of new subscribes:
xit xit <zzhille@domain W> 10 Feb 98
"xit xxx" <xit.xxx@domain Y> 20 feb 98
"pat darnell" <d.pat@domain X> 10 Feb 98
"pat block" <pat-b@domain X> 10 Feb 98
"Joan Kodowsky" <kodowsky@domain Y> 14 Feb 98
"Stanley wadersky" <wadersky@domain Y> 16 feb
"hola v" <hola.v@domain Y> 14 Feb 98
"hidelco hidelco" <hidelco@domain Y> 16 feb 98
"why me" <m_why@domain Y> 16 feb 98
"why me" <w_me@domain.Y> 23 feb 98
"chess master" <c.master@domain Y> 16 feb 98
"chess master" <chess_master@domain.Y> 23 feb 98
"harry rebel" <h.rebel@domain Y> 16 feb 98
"kenneth wowsers" <w_kenneth@domain Y> 16 feb 98
"valerie k" <valeriek@domain Y> 14 Feb 98
"vanessa buck" <vanessa.buck@domain Y> 20 feb 98
"vanessa buck" <v.buck@domain Y> 20 feb 98
"sweet grass" <sweetgrass@domain Y> 20 feb 98
"super woman" <woman.super@domain.Y> 23 feb 98
Follow-Ups:
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