Hello, I just today found out about this list; this is my first post. Having never been a mailing list owner, I'm hoping someone might be willing to help in bringing me up to speed on the agonies and the ecstasies of this responsibility. Some details: Our firm is assessing the feasibility of establishing an emailing list to support a technology transfer project that we're taking the lead in promoting and supporting. Initially we envision having about 1,000 participants on the list. Well, that is the number of people we'll invite to participate though I suspect that the regular participants will be around 50-150. I need to learn the following: 1. Is it recommended/wiser/better for us to have the listserv hosted on our own server? What are the requirements to do this? Size of server, other software applications needed to be on the server, etc. 2. If another company is the host, what is a standard cost for this? What is the downside, assuming that there is one(more?), of our not hosting this ourselves? 3. I've heard about L-Soft and they've come recommended to me. Are they pretty much the best choice for either our hosting or them hosting? 4. About how much employee time weekly will be required to monitor a listserv such as this one? 5. It strikes me that some initial training would be useful and a good investment, or, have most of you learned how to do this through self-immersion? It will be a pleasure to hear from the more seasoned list owners and hopefully avoid some of the less wise choices out there. Thanks for listening. Peggy Lucero 4iP, Inc. Bethesda, MD 20814 [log in to unmask] www.4iP.com