Either the semester has ended, or you are bored to tears reading the exchanges on the stuttering lists, or you have something a lot more interesting to do such as go on vacation. You want to leave the "stutt" lists that you have been reading. It is not difficult. You are working with computers, though, and in spite of themselves, they really are rather stupid machines. You have to follow the right procedure to sign off, or you will probably send your message to the wrong place, and feel a little dumb, and irritate the people who are staying on the list. Here is what to do.
1. Open your email account. If you are an advanced user with a signature block, turn it off. If you don't know if you have a signature block, you probably don't, so don't worry about it.
2. If you are signed on to only one list, type the correct address in the "to" line:
3. Most mail handling programs will put your return address in the "from" line for you. You should not need to write in your email account - but some older programs require that. If the "from" line appears automatically, go on to the next step. If it did not, you will need to write your email address in the "from" line.
4. You may ignore the subject line if you want unless you are using an AOL account in which case you must put something, it doesn't matter what, there in order to proceed. However, even if you don't have to use a subject line, those can help you keep track of which messages have cleared and which haven't, so it's a good idea to use one. To eliminate confusion, do not write anything that resembles "Sign off (or Unubscribe) stutt-l" (or whatever) in that line. Use something informative like the number of the class that reading the list is homework in: "dropping stutt-l for speech path 504".
5. Cursor down to the body of the message and write:
For stutt-x: signoff stutt-x For stutt-l: signoff stutt-l You do not need to include your name, and you should not use the word "unsubscribe." One of the systems recognizes that term, but the others prefer "signoff". As the one that recognizes "unsubscribe" also recognizes "signoff", make your life easy and use the same word for all of them.
I hope you have enjoyed your time on the lists. Any time you want to come back, you will certainly be welcome.
(If your browser is configured right and connected to an email account, you can also unsubscribe by connecting to these links: which will automatically put in the correct addresses for you, ignoring the subject line, and then typing the signoff message as described above. JK)
added February 18, 1999
updated January 25, 2003
updated January 19, 2004
updated March 10, 2008