> Respectfully, this doesn't seem to be the way the internet is going.
> Personally I'd like to keep things separated as Pete implies, but as a
> facilitator of communications, I'm trying to adapt my list environment that
> I find the users to be in. I thought LISTSERV-cum-web was an alternative to
> say, the egroups.com approach. Evidently I'm mistaken. The question remain,
> what *is* the purpose of the LISTSERV web (subscriber) interface if not to
> provide an alternative to the email mode? And if it is an alternative,
> shouldn't it be one-to-one with email, in the sense that the users should
> see the same behavior at each?

IMNSHO, one of the big problems with the 'net has been that too many people
think that every connection type should provide the same sort of service.
This falls down too many times; it's like expecting to be able to hop into
a semi-trailer (or a motorcycle or helicopter) and expect to use it because
it does similar things to a car.  FTP is never going to be useful to read
your mail, and the WWW is not an efficient medium for real-time chat, IRC
is useless for synchronising to internet clocks or receiving files, and
so forth.

The other problem you see here is that different sites have different
purposes.  The LISTSERV web interface has, AFAICS, a very good purpose:
to allow people to browse the archives of the most recent postings, to be
able to search the archives, and change their list settings, using a HTML
interface.  It differs from any one of the sites set up for reading mail
via the WWW because it does not pretend to be a 'personal' interface.
Mail on LISTSERV is not directed to you; on lists which allow non-
subscribers to read the archives (as we do), literally anyone could be
reading that posting.

So the idea that LISTSERV should try to keep track of what an individual
has seen or not seen is, to me, simply inconcievable.  The problems with
storing the cookies or server-side information is huge, let alone the
problems with dealing with Web TV or DHCP clients that change their
addresses.

While the LISTSERV interface is a very good way of checking through the
mail on a list, AFAIAC it's not the same as a mail reader, nor should it
be used as such.

Again, hope this helps,

Paul