Further to "Potter List Change"

From: Dennis W. Farrell (dfarrell@ridgecrest.ca.us)
Date: Wed Apr 05 2000 - 19:55:14 PDT


If you read no other part of this, please read "FULL DISCLOSURE" at the
bottom.

All: on 3/31 I sent an all-hands email which said, amongst other things,
that we've been asked to find another home for our 592 member Potter Mailing
List. I've attached a copy of that note.

Feed-back Received
Since then I've received notes from 16 members, some of which resulted in
further correspondence. One person objected emphatically to the idea of
advertising on our list notes. That person and another offered to provide a
no-cost, no-advertising host for the list. Others either had no comment on
advertising, or felt that it wouldn't be a problem to them. Several
suggested possible hosts, all of which I've looked at. There were two
suggestions that IM should foot part/all of the bill.

Requirements
In searching for a new home for the list, I used the following four
requirements:
    There must be an individual item list
    There must be a digest list
    There must be *dependable* 24/7/52 service
    It must be very easy to change providers.

I also feel that it important to the credibility of the list to have neither
the actuality nor the appearance of sponsor involvement in the expression of
our opinions.

What's next
It is my current intention to move the list to http://www.egroups.com/
effective Tuesday, 4/11. You should know that the cost will be 4 - 6 lines
of advertising, generally at the bottom of each of our emails. The
transition should be relatively easy. I will have further information over
the next couple of days.
If you have substantive objections or concerns about *where* or *when* we're
moving, please either let me know or if you prefer post it to the list. I
would hope to avoid clogging everyone's email with too much such discussion,
however. Please note that the *fact* of our moving is non-negotiable. We
have been told by our current provider that we must move.

FULL DISCLOSURE
eGroups and ONElist both (actually, they're now both the same company) offer
a $500 bounty for large lists which move to their sites and remain for 120
days with memberships over 500. That $500 won't go into my pocket. I'm
making arrangements to escrow the money, and intend that we eventually use
it to pay for "no third-party advertising" on our emails


attached mail follows:



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
        West Wight Potter Mailing List maintainer
                dfarrell@ridgecrest.ca.us
           List hosted by www.tscnet.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The current Potter list server host, tscnet.com, is in the process of
changing portions of their business. They feel they can no longer support
the Potter Mailing List. They have been generous to us in providing good
resources below their cost.

The list will be moving to a new host in about 10 days. To those of you to
whom this is of slight importance, read no further. You need to do nothing
for now.

I haven't come to a final decision as to who that host should be. I've been
running experiments and tests to help in making that decision. I believe
there is good service to be had, but we will pay a price. We will pay
either in money or in the inconvenience of having advertising attached to
each of our emails. Those of you who have been in similar situations will
realize the difficulties involved in maintaining a dependable funding stream
from a voluntary, non-dues-paying group. I hope that advertising on our
emails won't be too great a problem to any of you.

There may be other hosts who will supply us with free service without
advertising. Three week's research on the Internet hasn't revealed any.
List server operation and maintenance is specialized. Most of the list
server software is neither well built nor well documented.

If anyone has specific inputs about alternative services which do not charge
and do not impose advertising, please let me know *off-list*.

It is essential that there be both an individual item and a digest list,
much as we have now. Ease of subscription and unsubscription is important,
as is ease of handling "bounced" email. In addition, I'd like to see a list
server that didn't impose too much work on the maintainer for a list this
size.<G>

Transition to a new list server won't be absolutely seamless, but both
tscnet.com and I will try to minimize inconvenience to the community.

I'm not looking to start a general list uproar. If you have free-floating
anxieties <G> about this, please be a bit patient and I'll provide more
information as I am able. If you have substantive contributions, send them
to me personally and I'll try to discuss them with you within a day.

Cheers -- dwf (Potter Mailing List maintainer)



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