>We are thinking of creating two comapnion lists: one for discussion,
>the other strictly as a database on the same topic.  ...
 
My college ice hockey list (HOCKEY-L) has been discussing something
similar to this for many months.  We have, in recent years spun off two
lists (OLYMPUCK - Olympic ice hockey and HOCKEY3 - Division III college
ice hockey), while others have independently appeared (HOCKEYJR - Junior
A ice hockey and UK-HOCKEY - UK college ice hockey) but our posting rate
continues upward.
 
Under discussion are use of the TOPICS facility and/or a separate
moderated or invited-only list for some purpose (in our case to include
scores, standings, box scores, statistics, etc., but *not* discussions).
 
This second list would have the main discussion list as a subscriber, so
someone with marginal or no interest in the discussions could subscribe
to the second list, whereas all the gung-ho folks could continue getting
everything on the main (present day) list.
 
There appear to be several stumbling blocks, however.  The information in
the new second list is time-sensitive ...  people want it immediately;
they don't want it delayed minutes or hours or days for a moderator to
give blessing.  On the other hand, an invited-only list smacks of
elitism and the invited-author list is time-consuming to maintain.
(Yes, I know that the authorized posters of one list may be the
membership of yet another dummy list).
 
Also, many or most discussions would be started from a post to the
second list.  This is not a problem to the person that sees it from the
first list, but it would be confusing, I think, to the subscriber of the
second list that s/he should reply to a different list.
 
Given all this, my current feeling is that my "second list" will not be
created (this year), but we'll continue to focus on providing local
re-distributions, high-quality postings on the existing list, spawning
related lists where appropriate, and providing a wealth of information
via files stored in LISTSERV.  (In fact, LISTSERV very kindly will send
a copy of changed files, such as league standings or team schedules,
with a simple AFD subscription).
 
cheers,
 
Wayne Smith
The College Hockey Discussion List administrator
Systems Group - CAPS              BITNET/CREN:  wts@maine
University of Maine System        internet:     [log in to unmask]
 
P.S.  This note is "CCed" to the HOCKEY list, a temporary list for the
      discussion of HOCKEY-L and its administration.