We recognized that Major Dumbo was completely out of control.
We then turned our email over to a Higher Power.
But when our List Admin began babbling and screaming, too, we
*really*
knew we were in trouble.
We made a searching moral inventory of every time we have sent to
the wrong address; used a command-word in a post or so help us gods in
a header; included attachments; sent oversized posts; or done any
other Bad Things to make Major Dumbo bawl and chew on our List Admin's
ear.
We shared this moral inventory with at least one person who cared
enough to listen. Many of us are still searching for someone to help
us complete Step 5.
We became entirely ready to have our higher power remove all these
shortcomings by finding us some mailing list software that actually
WORKS.
We humbly asked our Higher Power to please do so before we are
driven to Mortal Sin.
We made a list of everyone who has ever been adversely affected by
a Bounced Post, weird characters in a post, corruption of an attached
file, down-time of the list, or any other Major Dumbo-related error on
any list we were on.
We committed ourselves to making amends to all of these people.
We decided to discuss the nature of these amends off-line where
Major Dumbo cannot hear us, where we also continue to compile our
inventory of mailing system errors.
We sought through prayer, meditation, and daily Net searches to
obtain improved mailing list software without spending any money.
Having had an Awakening of some sort or other as the result of
these steps, we try daily to carry the message to other mailing list
users: "Escape from Major Dumbo!"
Somewhere in my files I have an Over-Editor's Recovery program I created with another writer, but every time I go looking for it I get distracted by something that needs editing.