[278] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Listserv bickering
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David Lesher)
Mon Mar 4 21:48:02 1991
From: David Lesher <wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu>
To: wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (David Lesher)
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 91 21:32:06 EST
In-Reply-To: <9103042340.AA17210@world.std.com>; from "Barry Shein" at Mar 4, 91 6:40 pm
Reply-To: wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (David Lesher)
Return-Receipt-To: wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu
My view of LISTSERV is based on a problem that bit me hard. Since I
see others also suffering, I'll bring it up.
I once subscribed to a LISTSERV group, and needed to unsubscribe. I
couldn't. I sent all the messages, cast all the spells, etc. But it
kept telling me I was NOT subscribed, so I could not unsubscribe. Not
even the Internet list manager could help me; he reported others on the
BITNET side in the same fix.
I looked at the notices I got when I joined for a PERSON to write to,
but every piece was signed "Listserv Management" and our sendmail.cf
choked on replying to THAT. After the mailbox overquota daemon here
trashed my incoming spool three times, I had to do something, and with
apologies to the list, asked for help on it. Surprise! I got LOTS of
'me, to' answers. I see similar requests from others.
Granted this is more of a management problem than a conceptual one, but
I still regard LISTSERV with the same caution as the sorcerer's
apprentice views the mop. News, on the other hand, expires without
killing my mailbox.
Maybe the reason why computer-outsiders use more lists than news has to
do with the SITES they are at. After all, until recently, Unix, the
foundation of news, and still the system the best readers run on, was a
environment not likely to be found outside the CS/Engineering school.
I'm presently helping a friend set up a private news distribution in
a non-academic environment. He looked at mail and news, and news came
out ahead in his mind.
I think there is room for both.
(I now subscribe to LISTSERV lists only because I have elm's filter
available. It kindly junks that mail I cannot stop. I recommend it.)
--
A host is a host from coast to coast.....wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu
& no one will talk to a host that's close............(305) 255-RTFM
Unless the host (that isn't close)......................pob 570-335
is busy, hung or dead....................................33257-0335
