He is the author of Managing Mailing Lists (O'Reilly & Associates, 1998). In his spare time, he develops and maintains the PennMUSH MUD server and brews beer and mead with his wife. As mail administrator for a number of organizations, he deals with unsolicited email on a daily basis; as the moderator of the rec.games.mud.announce Usenet newsgroup, and a NoCeM issuer for rec.games.mud.admin, he gleefully fights back against newsgroup 9781565923881. Turn-ons for Alan include sailing, programming in Perl, playing duplicate bridge, and drinking Anchor Porter. Turn-offs include 9781565923881 (obviously!) and watery American lagers.