unsubscribathon

---------------------------------------------------------------- un.sub.scrib.athon Pronunciation: &n-s&b-'skrIb-&-"tha:n ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1 : a sequence of list removal requests sent to an unmoderated, over-subscribed email list, rather than to the owners of the list; specif: such an event in which each removal request encourages another to be sent by the next most irate subscriber; a situation embodying both dramatic irony and a tragedy of the commons: marked by both incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the intended result, and by the abuse and consequent destruction of a non-excludable public good. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Etymology: English, un- + subscribe + marathon, from un-, Middle English, from Old English; akin to Old High German un- un-, Latin in-, Greek a-, an-, Old English ne not; subscribe, Middle English, from Latin subscribere, literally, to write beneath, from sub- + scribere to write, Marathon, Greece, site of a victory of Greeks over Persians in 490 B.C., the news of which was carried to Athens by a long-distance runner. Date: 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------