Howto unsubscribe from a mailing list

[Torsten Curdt <tc...@apache.org>]

Dear people who try hard to unsubscribe from a mailing list. Here is a
quick howto.


1) You are using Gmail?

Guess what - all you have to do is to press the little down arrow
behind the "sender" and click on "unsubscribe from this mailing list".


2) You are not on Gmail but get all these annoying messages from
people you don't know - and that you don't want to know.

Pro tip: look in the header. Most if not all mail reading software
lets you see the original message. In there you will find a header
like this

  List-Unsubscribe: <ma...@hadoop.apache.org>

For the smart ones - yes that's also how Gmail know how to unsubscribe you ;)


Still reading - are we? *sigh*.


3) You don't have Gmail and you have no clue how to get to this darn
message headers.

Easy - just open the project home page and look at the mailing list
instructions. There is good chance there are instructions on how to
unsubscribe, too.


4) You don't use Gmail, you have no clue about stupid message headers
and you have never heard about that project where you suddenly get all
these message from (and you are really pissed off)

Hit reply and append "-help" to mailing list address. There is a good
chance a bot will respond and tell you how to unsubscribe.


5) If none of that worked...

Well, maybe computers are not your thing anyway. Be humble and ask
politely on the mailing list how to unsubscribe. Use a subject prefix
"[OT]" so less people get bothered looking at it. At least one of the
moderators will help you out.


In other words don't be a lazy ass and just send "unsubscribe" to
people all around the world.
No offense - but people using Hadoop should do better than this. It's
a matter of respect to try just a little harder.

cheers,
Torsten