Thanks to Eric and others who reminded me about the new TOPICS feature.
It seems the basics are already built in...  Of course, as I said, this
was just a model I thought might be useful.
 
For the record... Here's a way to implement a list model of that sort
using the existing ListServ.
 
A listserv manager could create a number of sub-lists named something like
MLIST-1, MLIST-2,...MLIST-n.  Where MLIST is the main list name.  The owner of
these lists would be the owner of MLIST.  If the list wanted something to "go
committee", the MLIST's owner could assign one of these lists to the topic.
 
Time limits could be enforced either by the ListOwner or if required, the
Listserv manager could setup a 'scheduled job' that would monitor the number
of subscribers to these lists and set them to zero by restoring a default
header file (after warnings of course!).
 
Of course, the user issues still exist.  Sigh... When are those intelligent
mail readers going to come, you know, the ones that read the mail for you
and decide if you need to read it or not.... 8-).  Maybe when my son gets
older I'll make him work for his allowance by being an intelligent filter.
 
Greg Monroe  <[log in to unmask]>
Duke's Fuqua School of Business
Durham, NC  27708-0114