Confirming subscribe: confusion, and inconsistance or unclarity

[Garreau\, Alexandre]

Hello,

It’s been a while I use to subscribe to the mailing-lists of the
projects I’m interested in, and I’m still confused at every confirmation
request : in fact, as the confirmation mails put it:

<list>-confirm+<string>@gnu.org wrote:
> To confirm that you want to be added to this mailing list, simply
> reply to this message, keeping the Subject: header intact. […]
> 
> Or include the following line -- and only the following line -- in a
> message to address@hidden:
>
>     confirm 77a1eb4a6fdc66a23923b97144ff970f60c347a8
>
> Note that simply sending a `reply' to this message should work from
> most mail readers, since that usually leaves the Subject: line in the
> right form (additional "Re:" text in the Subject: is okay).

Yet usually the “Subject:” line is “Your confirmation is required to
join the coreutils mailing list”, not “confirm
77a1eb4a6fdc66a23923b97144ff970f60c347a8”, therefore I don’t see what’s
the relationship with the “Subject:” line the mail suggests.  It says
“in a message” but when I read this I understand it expects “in the body
of the message”, with of course the ambiguity (which is an ambiguity,
it’s quite unclear) of if we consider the Subject as “in the message”.

Also the confirmation string is in fact present in the address of the
sender, after the “+”, so in fact answering should include it in the
mail (again, ambiguously, we can think as of the “To:” line as “in the
message”), but it still has nothing to do with most mail readers leaving
the “Subject:” line in the right form with an additionnal “Re:”.

I tried all the combinations and still never understood what would
trigger the combination: “to:” header, “subject:” header, body?  and
most of time I have to wait an error message mail before to subscribe
via the web interface (and I don’t like the web… furthermore it requires
a system with a browser, maybe even a graphical one).

I even managed to receive several error message mail of this form:

<list>address@hidden wrote:
> The results of your email command are provided below. Attached is your
> original message.
>
> - Results:
>     Invalid confirmation string.  Note that confirmation strings expire
> approximately 3 days after the initial request.  They also expire if
> the request has already been handled in some way.  If your confirmation has
> expired, please try to re-submit your original request or message.
>
> - Done.
>
> Original message suppressed by Mailman site configuration

Is this interface no longer correctly working? the explanation message
not updated somehow? inconsistant however? or is it just me who’s
confused by it?

Thank you in advance for any help or explanation.