danj at WELCHGATE.WELCH.JHU.EDU (Dan Jacobson x-8453) writes:
: Over the years there has been much discussion about switching
: the bionet groups to a strictly USENET distribution system. As it is now
: the bionet groups are distributed both via Usenet AND as mailing lists
: to individuals' e-mailboxes. There are many inherent problems in distributing
: the groups via e-mail, mail loops, full mail spools from users who don't read
: there mail for awhile, the need to sort through ones mailbox constantly - which
Well, Dan - I am one of the many people who don't have a Usenet newsfeed and
although I can login remotely to read news it is not a practical propositon
to let all our users do this.
I agree that uncontrolled mail subscriptions can be a problem, but at our
site I have subscribed one user <news> to several biosci mailing lists and
I'm using "procmail" as a local delivery agent to put incoming mail into
folders which are then 'posted' locally to a fake news spool area where
everyone reads them using the 'tin' newsreader.
I've been using the mail->news system to read and post to bionet.plants
for the last couple of weeks, but I'm still waiting for BIOFORUM to arrive!
We plan to do better using C-news and mail2news, but the principle remains
the same. Indeed, I could use the tin newsreader itself to give us a
mail-based newsfeed from the bionet news on a remote machine.
E-mail is, and will remain the only access many people have to bionet so
why not try and use it effectively instead of cutting people out because
they are unable to get a newsfeed?
Tony
--
Dr. A.J.Travis, | Tony Travis
Rowett Research Institute, | JANET: <ajt at uk.ac.sari.rri>
Greenburn Road, Bucksburn, | other: <ajt at rri.sari.ac.uk>
Aberdeen, AB2 9SB. UK. | phone: 0224-712751
