>Sand Rodent Wrote,
>
>>...... Or, Barbara, could these
>>large packages of data go out to the list as ScienceGrams or some other
>>separately flagged and separately sent out data?
>>
>>I remain, the Rat in your midst,
>>D T Anderson (or shaken well in a blender by a seasoned Parkie like me
>>.......Sand Rodent)
>
>As an alternative to placing long posts on the Listserver, they could be
>uploaded to the BBS I operate. The upside is that they would be available
>to anyone with a computer & modem and would not fill up everyones mailbox.
>The downside is that access to the BBS requires a toll call as the BBS is
>not on the 'net.
>
>The Young Parkinson's Support Network BBS may be accessed by calling 805
>934-4950. (8N1, to 14400 baud)
I suggested something like this a while back, based on an idea from Gary
Zimmerman - a seperate list (I called it "Contrib", but it could be called
anything).
Posts that were on the long side and perhaps slightly special interest
could get posted to this Contrib list. The PARKINSN list would remain the
primary PD "discussion" list.
Benefits:
- if you have problems with mail volume, only subscribe to the
PARKINSN discussion list, or to PD-Contrib.
- if you don't mind all the mail, subscribe to *both* lists.
- articles are seperated from discussion, very useful for archiving.
- we could post a regular "Stuff sent to Contrib" message to the
main PARKINSN list which would allow you to get anything interesting
that you might have missed.
People really wouldn't notice the difference in practice, except those who
didn't want lots of long posts wouldn't get them.
This is done elsewhere on the Internet - there is a discussion group (like
PARKINSN) and a group for more substantive articles. People can pick and
choose as they wish.
When I suggested this last time (on 27/9/95, subject "Endless post - one
solution" there was a 50/50 split between the yes and no camp. Then I got
busy and didn't have time to take it further. I am very concious that there
is no point in trying something like this without a clear majority
supporting it.
"No" people were afraid of "having to go to 2 seperate places for PD info"
- which I believe is more of a misunderstanding than a real concern.
Subscribing to 2 discussion lists is about as hard as subscribing to one,
and all the mail ends up in the same place.
Other points:
- if you want to get all the mail you can, subscribe to both lists
(which isn't very difficult......!)
- all this system gives you is *choice*
- it does make archiving & reuse of the messages on this list much
easier. I'm trying to sort the existing PARKINSN archives out at the
moment, and the process is painful.
- we are going to have to do something about the volume on this list
sooner or later. A sign of a successful group is it splits into
different sub-groups. If you don't split, the volume of messages will
grow to the extent that the list membership will stagnate.
Is anyone interested in reviving this PD-Contrib proposal? Comments?
Simon
--------- My opinions are my own, NIP's opinions are theirs ----------
Simon J. Coles Email: [log in to unmask]
New Information Paradigms Work Phone: +44 1344 778783
http://www.nipltd.com/ Work Fax: +44 1344 772510
=============== Life is too precious to take seriously ===============
