Dammit...the list blips out now and then...so _what_?
All that ever happens is it's silent for a few hours
and then all the messages flood in at once.

Knowing this, why don't the inevitable 10 "is this
list up?" posters just _not post_?  If you fear that 
you were unsubbed, keep in mind that you won't get the
message back until the list is up again anyways...
and once it goes up, you get the other 50 or so messages
that were stuck with your spam post, automatically proving
that the list is back up and that you were not unsubbed
(basically, your spam message wasn't necessary as a test).
Why not just wait and see if you get any ML mail within 
a couple days? And if you think you WERE unsubbed, just 
sub yourself to fanfic-request@fanfic.com again...double-
subbing doesn't do any harm! (i THINK... ^_^)

Geez

signed, phoney