Hello, my name is John Buckman, and I work for Logika, the company
developing the LISTSERV graphical user interface for Windows, Mac,
OS/2 and X/motif.  We are very close to beta testing and plan to
release the Windows version in July.
 
Some of its capabilities:
 
* Easily search the available lists to find topics that interest you,
or use one of the saved searches that come with the software.
 
* Extremely easy database searches, with both simple and advanced
versions, with the capability to have a search run on a periodic
basis - providing a kind of customized news feed.
 
* Ability to peek at a list and fetch a list of recent topics, to help
a user decide of they want to subscribe.
 
* Easily go on vacation, then return and fetch missed messages.
 
* Change subscription settings with ease.
 
 
A typical user may choose the "Music" as a list topic, then do
an archive search on a topic which interests them (the latest
electronic toys, for example).
 
 
UNFORTUNATELY, A PROBLEM WITH HOW MANY LISTS ARE CONFIGURED.
 
A great number of list owners have set their list up so that only
subscribers can perform database jobs, ths forcing people to join
the list before doing the search.  The majority are public lists
who allow for automatic subscription.
 
Now, our software could automatically subscribe, do the search, then
signoff, and this would circumvent the problem.  This is not a good
solution because the list owner will be innundated with false
subscription notices, the requester will get information about
subscribing, and the whole process won't work if the list has
the confirm option.
 
A much better solution would be to have list owners who have public
lists allow database jobs by making their notebooks public.  The
question is, how much reticense will there be in doing this, what
is the likely success rate, and is this too much to ask?  I could
certainly send mail to the list owners asking them to change.
 
The reason we want this change is that the Recent Topics (a form
of database search) and Archive search commands are very
reasonable things to want to do, even if one is not subscribed.
 
For example, I wanted to find a list which discussed my particular
synthesizer.  I did a search for "kurzweil, k2000", found a list,
then joined it.
 
 
FEEDBACK
 
We would very much like to know your feelings on this issue.  Having
Archive return "access control violation" is a choice, but not a very
good one.  We could resolve to fix the problem with a mass nagging
of list owners.  What other choices are there?  Suggestions?
 
This message is being cross-posted to LDBASE-L, LSTOWN-L, LSTSRV-L.
I'll be following the various message threads on the various
lists they occur on.
 
John Buckman
Logika Inc.