Date: Wed, 17 May 1995 22:07:38 +0900
From: Stephen Turnbull <turnbull AT shako DOT sk DOT tsukuba DOT ac DOT jp>
To: djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu
Subject: Hacking the listserv

   > > 	I have recently installed djgpp ......
   > > I can't find any document ...........
   > 
   > Ever looked into the FAQ?  ...........
   > 

   It strikes me that instead of hacking the mail list reflector code as
   has been discussed  in the past several weeks, it would probably be
   much more beneficial to the list if the subscription code automatically
   mailed a copy of the FAQ to new subscribers.....

   || Ken Bowen      Applied Logic Systems, Inc.         PO Box 180,     

There are lots of good things that could be done, but they all run
into one big problem: the listserv maintainer is a volunteer who has
very little relation to DJGPP.  All DJGPP is to him is a service that
he's glad to have helped along, but which he personally derives little
other benefit than that satisfaction from.  At this point, the DJGPP
list itself is the source of the overwhelming majority of his listserv
problems.  (No comment on DJGPP's members; it's just a huge mailing
list, and that brings some extra work and more chance of other
reflectors which get into loops and stuff like that.)  He'd rather not
deal with it.

I've considered volunteering to host the list myself, get a
state-of-the-art package like majordomo running, but it's not
reasonable.  My resources are not so great not so bad (one Linux 50MHz
486DX box and a fast network connection), but the killer is that I
cannot depend on the University to keep its nameservers and other
network facilities running properly, or even give me warning about
*scheduled* downtime.  (I've repeatedly requested since March 1994
that they proper register my address with a reverse nameserver (P
record) and MX records, to no effect.  Just to give you some idea....)

In the meantime, the odds have become quite high that DJGPP will move
to a Usenet newsgroup (see news.announce.newgroups or news.groups for
the Call-For-Votes, or look in the DJGPP archives; grep for "CFV:
comp.os.msdos.djgpp", I think should work).  At that time the old
list will become defunct, the vast majority of traffic will move to
the newsgroup, and those people who cannot or prefer not to use
netnews will be served by a mail/news gateway hosted by delorie.com.
The exact features (eg, digestification) are still under discussion
AFAIK but the basic necessary features are all there and have been
tested.

So we may as well wait until the end of next week when the results of
the vote will be posted.  A few days after that the newsgroup (if
approved) will be newgroup'ed, and away we go....

-- 
Stephen Turnbull  /  Yaseppochi-gumi  /  <turnbull AT shako DOT sk DOT tsukuba DOT ac DOT jp>
http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/      anon FTP: turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
Check out Kansai-WWW, too ------------> http://pclsp2.kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp/