On Sat, 4 May 1996 00:00:57 +0200 Automatic digest processor said:
 
>Date:    Fri, 3 May 1996 14:57:58 -0400
>From:    "David W. James" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: What are the limits?
>
>I have someone asking if they can run a 140,000 member listserv on our machine
>(a SPARC 20, 96 meg of ram).  Does anyone out there have experience with
>driving a list that large, and what it takes to do it?
 
With apologies for the mini-flame, I'd be willing to bet it would take
more resources than AOL seems to have at the moment.
 
We (at SHOtimes-l) got so disgusted with "mailbox full" and other errors from
AOL servers that we set all our AOL subscribers to DIGEST permanently.  We
resend the command often to make sure nobody's trying to escape; a number of
AOLers have jumped to other services as a result.
 
God help you (and the rest of us who will have to deal with the indirect
delays) if somebody tries to support a list of 140,000 from AOL.
 
-- John Witherspoon
   Washington, DC