Hello, I'm a new subscriber to this list.  I'm also a VM system programmer
and the Bitnet techrep at my node.  We are exploring alternatives
to allowing all our users to subscribe to any lists they so choose,
because we are concerned about the large volume of reader files this
policy allows.  It has been suggested to us we set up one userid as the
subscriber to all lists our users currently correspond to.  All mail sent
to this code would be read into list specific notebooks and made available
to others on a r/o link using the Mailbook facility.  One big problem I see
with this is the inability of users to individually post to a private
discussion group, as only the single subscriber userid would be enrolled.
Does anyone utilize a single subscriber scheme similar to what I have
described?  Has it lead to a substantial decrease in mail traffic?  Does
it require a significant amount of administrative work on the central
code (e.g. how often do you read in mail and update the notebooks)?  Is it
difficult to prevent users from subscribing themselves to lists anyway?
Any suggestions or experiences you have concerning this would be greatly
appreciated.