>If someone wants to have a non-backbone  listserv - then they have to be
>cut-off from the backbone.
 
Uh? Well obviously  if someone wants to have a  non-backbone LISTSERV, he
wants to be cut off from the backbone.
 
A non-backbone  site should  not be  allowed as  a DIST  receiver (except
possibly for his local node recipients), because by definition his tables
are be likely to be outdated  and it would cause inefficient distribution
(in the best case). If you  want better service from LISTSERV, you should
be prepared to provide  a higher degree of service to  the other sites as
well,  and  to accept  a  reasonable  amount  of responsibility  for  the
operation  of  your server.  They  should  be  allowed to  use  mail-via=
distribute though, or then they'd be  using vanilla lists and spewing out
150 files at each distribution. They  do not, in moral terms, DESERVE it,
but if  we're too  uncooperative we'll  end up harming  the network  as a
whole.
 
  Eric