SEPARATE is a very  bad option. Many times I've wanted  to remove it (and
SINGLE, too - will you believe there  are lists with a single notebook of
3-4M???). It  introduces performance problems  in many parts  of LISTSERV
which I am just not going to spend  the time to address. I am not talking
about minor glitches  which people more patient than me  will tolerate. I
am  talking about  people asking  me how  the database  functions can  be
disabled, because searches  on the XYZ-L list take 5  minutes to complete
on their 3090-class machine (because  there are 4,000 individual files to
open  for a  full  text  search). Others  wanted  to  disable the  'INDEX
listname'  feature because  the resulting  file  was too  large on  their
SEPARATE list. Similarly, I  had people ask me how to  prevent GET of the
huge notebooks :-) I don't want  people to disable the database functions
or  remove 'INDEX  listname'  because  they have  one  list which  causes
problems.  SEPARATE is  a legitimate  option for  digests or  other lists
where there is a posting a month or two. SINGLE is fine for a short-lived
list, one  created for 3 weeks  to talk about something  and then closed.
But trying to use either option  for one of its side-effects is something
your are likely to regret a few years later :-)
 
  Eric