> Perhaps the managers of the lists could indicate whether
> they consider that replies to lists put too much load on the
> network. Personally, I often find useful information in replies
> to questions which, at first sight, were not of any particular
> interest. For those who feel it is a waste of time reading
> individual replies, it is usually possible to discover the content
> of a message in the Subject and skip it if it seems to be of
> no interest.
>
I can guarantee all of you that computer scientists would find our
volume laughably low, so I don't think that anyone need to worry about
overburdening the hardware, at least not for some time to come. The
usual issue involves the readers themselves. In order for the groups
to become even more useful, the readership must continue to expand.
Unfortunately some new users often get discouraged by the "volume"
before they run into a case where the newsgroups prove to be of
personal use to them. Once they score a "hit" though, we usually have
a "convert." We have to find a balance between useful answers and a
deluge. Unfortunately the serial nature of reading news and mail
often means that people respond before checking what other people have
posted. I am guilty of this quite frequently myself. Maybe I'll add
this to my list of New Year's resolutions along with wearing a tie to
work (.... nah!! 8-).
Sincerely,
Dave Kristofferson
GenBank Manager
kristoff at genbank.bio.net
