The change on arpanet list distribution to use listservs is going on quite wild and unorganised right now. I have over 60 distribution lists now of which about 40 are originally from arpanet. More and more are now being peer linked, each one on a different configuration of listservs which needs individual attention. I think we should form a backbone network of listservs redistributing every possible arpanet list (maybe even others). This would need several volunteers spread all over EARN/BITNET and everybody should be able to use full 8 character names without limits like $, -L... for consistent naming scheme. The naming isn't that hard if you get down to DO it. I've already those 40 names and each member of the backbone administrator would provide his share of new names and listheaders. That way most of the work would have to done only once with minimal time spent on individual lists. The load can't be too high for lines or the CPU even relay is using more CPU at least... We could make a new list for distributing new headers e.g. BONEHEAD, LISTBONE, LISTHEAD or the like :-) Installation of new lists on the backbone should be quite fast because everybody could use the same headers or do the same keyword modification. I changed one keyword on every list of mine with a single exec, and stored them all with an other :-) Maybe this should be better integrated and automated like newgroup messages in Usenet netnews which create new newsgroups automatically, only if you insist you can check them manually first... Anyway, I will volunteer as a northern Europe backbone if we get enough others. Harri Salminen, systems analyst Helsinki University of Technology Computing Centre alias HUTCC alias TeKoLa Paper datagrams: | BITNET: LK-HS@FINHUTC Otakaari 1 | UUCP: hks@santra (...mcvax|santra|hks) 02150 Espoo | EAN: [log in to unmask] Finland | FUDEC: OPMVAX::SALMINEN Voice Virtual Ciruit: | ARPA: [log in to unmask] +358-0-4512632 | CSNET: Real Soon Now... "Virtually, I don't work, I just netWORK :-)"