>I did a EXPLODE EDTECH (BEST 3 with the hope of finding one good peer in
>the USA. Listserv found 3 peers, FRULM11, TREARN, and IRLEARN, and would
>move 15, 5, and 3 subscribers respectively.
>
>My guess is  the fact that OHSTVMA  also has a Internet  gateway, led to
>Listserv to determine that most of the subscribers should remain here.
 
The problem is different: for "political" reasons, the EARN<->BITNET link
has a very high weight (to avoid having european servers "route" european
mail through the US). This cannot be changed without creating a big fuss,
there is no point discussing this, please take it for granted.
 
The end result is  that, if you have a US list with  N europeans on it, a
new  peer that  will  get  you rid  of  these N  people  is  going to  be
considered as  good as  a US  peer taking N*20  US subscribers.  There is
nothing wrong with this, the code is just doing what it was instructed to
do by the weights. But it means that, as long as you have european people
on your  list, european servers  will always show  up first. There  are 3
solutions to get out of this problem:
 
1. Increase  the value of the  BEST parameter until it  starts showing US
   servers.
 
2. Choose  an appropriate EARN peer,  move all the european  users there,
   and run the EXPLODE again.
 
3. Make a  test list containing all the non-european  users of your list,
   and EXPLODE that.
 
The most sensible course of action is probably (2).
 
  Eric