The Welcome and Farewell Files allow the List Owner to send a personalized greeting or goodbye to subscribers. If a list has Welcome and Farewell Files, when a user subscribes and unsubscribes from a list, listserv sends the user a copy of the appropriate file. The Welcome File can be used to define the purpose of the list and it's rules and the Farewell File can be used as a feedback tool. To see some examples of Welcome and Farewell files, check out Lsoft's Listserv Manual on following url:
http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/owner/owner.html#6.8

Be sure that you have a "personal password" with the PW ADD command before you try to PUT the Welcome or Farewell files. If you have done this but can't remember the password, send LISTSERV a PW RESET command. You will then be able to add a new password with the PW ADD command.

If your host is using LISTSERV version 1.8d, you can also edit your list's Weclome and Farewell files via the World Wide Web using the 1.8d WWW list management / Edit mail and WWW Templates

If you think your list already has a Welcome and/or Farewell file and you want to see what it says: send the following command for each in an email to the listserv:
-    get ListName welcome
-    get ListName farewell
You will get an email back from the listserv that looks simular to the following:

If your list does not have a Welcome and/or Farewell file You will get an email back from the listserv that looks simular to the following:

Now, you need to write or edit your Welcome or Farewell File and PUT it by sending it as an email to listserv. [Examples here are for welcome files, but the same form holds true for the farewell files]

1. Make sure the first line reads:
   

   Put ListName Welcome PW=YourPassword

2. The second line should read something like the following if you want to personalized the SUBJECT part of the header (use your own wording of course) - This is not required:
   

   Subject: Welcome to ListName!

3. The third line should start your welcome or farewell message.. when you are through creating/editing your welcome or farewell file and it's ready to PUT by emailing it to listserv it should look simular to the following: :
   

   TO: LISTSERV@LISTSERV DOMAIN SUBJ:    Nothing or anything - this is ignored by listserv Cc:    Not bad idea to send copy to yourself ;-) Put ListName Welcome PW=YourPassword Subject: Welcome to ListName! Welcome! ListName is a forum for questions and answers to and from people who are interested in whatever this list is about. Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada

4. If everything was done right you should recieve a confirmation from LISTSERV that your Welcome or Farewell files has been successfully PUT.