Hello, LSTOWN-L.
It was a pleasure to discover this list today, and to see that "our
founder" Eric Thomas himself is listowner here. So, -- thanks to all, and
especially to Eric, for creating this powerful and exciting tool.
*
I was motivated to join this list today particularly because of the sudden
growth of my own list, [log in to unmask] (The Bridge Across
Consciousness), which after more than a year of steady growth suddenly
went up from about 10,000 message lines per month to over 23,000 in the
first two weeks of June.
We have been reorganizing our project, and in the interest of protecting
quality, have just shifted over to the "Subscription= By_owner" option.
And I have been writing up a fairly comprehensive "Introduction and User's
Guide", which describes what we do, basic policies, our concept of style,
etc.
But I have a question.
As I read the basic "INFO REFCARD" for listserv, it seems to suggest that
subscribers can *choose* which _topics_ they wish to receive.
Is this possible? If so, how does this work?
What I would like to do is create an "official" list of topics, and then
permit BRIDGE-L subscribers to choose which particular subjects from a
wide array they wish to join. If this is possible, we might have a list
of twenty topics, and subscribers who are interested in 5 of them could
"sign off" for those that are not quite to their interest. If this is
possible, this kind of "topic control" would effectively create series of
linked "sub-lists", which might powerfully expand the potential of the
listserv format.
Our project is quite interdisciplinary, and compared to a "conference"
format, the "linear symbol stream" of a mailing list can become quite a
jumble. But if the message stream can be partitioned by topic, we could
take our project up to a much higher level.
*
The INFO REFCARD I have reads as follows:
Revised LISTSERV System Reference Library, release 1.7f
-------------------------------------------------------
(c) Eric Thomas 1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993
************************************************************
* *
* LISTSERV command reference cards: *
* *
*-> LISTSERV REFCARD: General user commands *
* LISTOWNR REFCARD: List and file management commands *
* LISTMAST REFCARD: Commands for the LISTSERV maintainer *
* *
************************************************************
. . .
SET listname options Alter your subscription options:
ACK/NOACK/MSGack -> Acknowledgements for postings
CONCEAL/NOCONCEAL -> Hide yourself from REVIEW
Files/NOFiles -> Toggle receipt of non-mail
files from the list
Mail/NOMail -> Toggle receipt of mail
DIGests/INDex -> Ask for digests or message
indexes rather than getting
messages as they are posted
REPro/NOREPro -> Copy of your own postings?
TOPICS: ALL -> Select topics you are
<+/->topicname subscribed to (add/remove
one or replace entire list)
It is this last TOPICS: option which interests me.
Can a subscriber send a SET command to the listserver, saying something
like
SET BRIDGE-L TOPICS: + science of consciousness + topic of the week
- interactive theology
thus changing their status on three possible subjects?
Is something like this even possible? Am I reading the REFCARD properly?
What would be the exact format for these commands?
*
I have a stack of listserv manuals printed out here, and have read
through the lstown-l log9406 file, but can't say that I have managed to
figure this out. I am going to continue to work through the manuals, but
a few clues would be very helpful.
Thanks so very much!
- Bruce Schuman
[log in to unmask],
Listowner, [log in to unmask]
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