**** MAY-DAY !!! MAY-DAY !!! GOING DOWN !!! GOING DOWN !!! **** Before I got my Internet-account at home I was subscribing to [log in to unmask] via my work. This mailing-list focusses on Acorn-related issues. As I only had E-mail facilities I soon discovered that I was missing out on an enormous bulk of information. You have to know that the traffic on ACORN-L is as low as it can get. The occasional posting on this mailing-list is outweighed by the daily flood of articles posted to the comp.sys.acorn.* hierarchy. At that time I was sure that I could not be the only Acorn user who was missing out on all this information. When I gained my Internet access at home I decided to learn from experience and try and help my fellow Acorn users. I wrote the application !MailList initially for this purpose: "To set-up a number of mailing-lists which would distribute the comp.sys.acorn.* NewsGroups to those Acorn-enthusiasts who are without access to NetNews." Approximately a year ago the mailing-lists where launched. During the first half of 1995 the hierarchy changed and the mailing-lists changed with it. Now there are 8 mailing-lists distributing Acorn-related newsgroups to E-mail: Mailing-list NewsGroup Subscribers ----------------------------------------------------- cs-arm comp.sys.arm 33 csa-ann comp.sys.acorn.announce 35 csa-apps comp.sys.acorn.apps 20 csa-games comp.sys.acorn.games 18 csa-hardw comp.sys.acorn.hardware 16 csa-misc comp.sys.acorn.misc 18 csa-net comp.sys.acorn.networking 13 csa-prog comp.sys.acorn.programmer 16 The NewsGroups are digested. When the digest has reached a size of approx. 64kB it is sent to the subscribers. A Mail-To-News-Gateway is not provided by MailList. Subscribers are advised to use special gateways for the purpose of posting a message themselves. !MailList runs (through !NewsBase) on my A5000 which is connected to the Internet via a long-distance dialup SLIP connection (using !TCPIP). Due to the high traffic on the newsgroups (approx. 64~100kB/day per newsgroup) the telephone-costs involved are a growing burden on my bank-account. Recently, I have asked Acorn if they were willing to take over the mailing-lists from me. Unfortunately, this was not possible at that time. This is my last attempt to save the mailing-lists from going under. In my view the mailing-lists serve a purpose and should not be allowed to shutdown. Through this posting I'm requesting the Internet-community to help us find a new site for these mailing-lists. Ofcourse, the perfect site would be acorn.co.uk but I have no high hopes. If you know of a site that wants to take over these mailing-lists (Be it using LISTSERV, ListProc, MajorDomo, !MailList or whatever) please contact me on [log in to unmask] Over the past few months I've had my fair share of guesswork and run-arounds (ie. "Maybe Mr. So-and-so can help you." or "Maybe postmaster@foo.bar.net..."). So, please only respond if you know for sure. -- Maurice Hendrix "Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line." - B. Mandelbrot - ...What's pink and hard? - A pig with a flick knife.