Unsubscribing From a Mailing List
All of the mailing lists hosted at are managed using the mailing list software.
If the mailing list you would like to unsubscribe from is in the list on our mailing lists page, then you don't need to use your mail client to unsubscribe, you can do so on the web, using the form on the page. If you still need to find out what email address you used to subscribe, the instructions on this page can help.
First off, if your email address has changed since you subscribed, don't panic! If you are still able to receive mail at your old email address, you can still unsubscribe without having to wait for someone to do it manually! An explanation of how to unsubscribe an email address other than your current one from the mailing lists is located further below.
To unsubscribe from one of those mailing lists, all you usually need to do is send an email to listname[email protected] (substituting the name of the list for listname — for example, [email protected]).
If you are subscribed to the digest version of the mailing list, you need to send an email to listname[email protected].
You will get an automated response with further instructions on how to unsubscribe from the list. (You are not simply unsubscribed immediately so that someone can't unsubscribe other people from the list without their consent.)
If you get a reply that says you are not subscribed to the mailing list, but you are receiving mailing list traffic, it may be because your email is now coming from a different address than when you first subscribed. (This is determined using the SMTP "envelope sender", not the 'From:' or any other header in your email. So you may not have changed anything, it may have been a change to your mail server or at your ISP.)
To determine what email address is subscribed to the mailing list that you are receiving the messages from, you'll need to inspect the headers of one of those messages. The email address will be encoded in the 'Return-Path' header with the @-sign replaced with an equals (=) sign. For example, if the subscribed email address is [email protected], the 'Return-Path' header will look something like:
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
If you use , you can view the full headers of a message by clicking on the 'Blah Blah Blah' toolbar button above the message.
If you use , you can view the full headers of a message by either clicking on the 'Options' tab (Outlook 97) or selecting the 'Options...' item from the 'View' menu. The headers are displayed at the bottom of the resulting window.
If you use , you can view the full headers of a message by selecting 'Properties' from the 'File' menu and then clicking on the 'Details' tab.
If you use , you can view the full headers of a message by typing 'h' in the message or list view (or whatever key you have bound to the 'display-toggle-weed' function).
If you use , you can view the full headers of a message by selecting 'Headers→All' from the 'View' menu.
If you use , you can view the full headers of a message by selecting 'Headers→All' from the 'View' menu, and expanding the headers section of the display by clicking on the triangle icon.
To unsubscribe an address like this that is different from what the mailing list software recognizes as your own address, you need to send mail to listname-unsubscribe-joecool=example.com@lists.php.net (or -unsubscribe-digest-, if the address is subscribed to the digest format of the list).
Once you have done that, you will receive a message at that email address with instructions on how to complete your unsubscription request.
If you are receiving mail from one of the mailing lists, there should be absolutely no reason that you would be unable to unsubscribe yourself from the list, except for your ability to follow these directions. However, if you find yourself unable to unsubscribe from the mailing list, send an email to [email protected]. Make sure to include the complete headers from one of the messages you have received from the mailing list. Keep in mind that there's a human being at the other end of that last email address, so you'll have to be patient.