The  purpose of  this note  is to  stress, once  more, the  importance of
getting a :internet tag into your node entry AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Support
for this tag in LISTSERV will be available Real Soon Now, but unless EACH
node administrator/techrep makes an effort and supplies the relevant data
in his  BITEARN NODES  entry, there  will be  no significant  decrease in
overall user frustration and I will have worked in vain.
 
Anyway,  after  spending  a  fair  amount  of  time  thinking  about  the
performance and functionality  implications of this new tag,  I have been
able to write most of the required code this week (thanks to the low rate
of  incoming  notes  in  my  mailbox  which  was  made  possible  by  the
association  of the  RARE'90 conference  and the  FRMOP22 scheduled  (and
unscheduled) downtime). I  hope to finish the coding this  weekend and to
be ready to distribute the changes to beta-test sites early next week. If
everything goes well, version 1.6e could  be released in the beginning of
june; everything should  definitely be in place for VERS9008  in july, if
not earlier.
 
Finally, although  the matter of NJE  aliases hasn't been settled  yet on
NODMGT-L, I  would like  to inform  you of  the technical  possibility of
having VAX-cluster aliases recognized by LISTSERV by placing the NJE node
name in question  in the :internet tag, with or  without '.BITNET' at the
end.  I  am  not  interested   in  the  religious  implications  of  this
possibility; I just want VAX-cluster managers  to know that, if they code
':internet.BIGVAX.DUH.EDU  DUHVAX1 DUHVAX2'  in the  "main" cluster  node
entry (and ONLY in that entry),  they will solve their present problem of
users not being able to sign off  via SEND if they subscribed via mail or
via SEND when  the moon was in  a different phase. Note  that the current
(to be  obsoleted) ':alias.' tag is  supported; its contents do  not need
(and  for  the  sake  of  performance should  not)  be  included  in  the
':internet.' tag if you want to make use of that "trick".
 
  Eric