[ deliberately cross-posted to both LSTSRV-L and SAS-L, with apologies to
those subscribed to both ]
 
I was recently taken by surprise when attempting to search the SAS-L
archives at VM.MARIST.EDU to find they had suddenly become unavailable to
me.  My SAS-L subscription is at UGA, but I normally use MARIST for database
searches because of its more complete set of archives.
 
It appears that the MARIST SAS-L archives are now only available to those
who have subscribed to SAS-L at that site, so that I have had to set up a
second 'dummy' (NOMAIL) subscription there in order to regain access to
those archives.  In responding to a query about this from Melvin Klassen
<[log in to unmask]>, Harry Williams <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
 
>I made the logs private because we were getting killed by people
>running searches against the logs.  We would get 5 or 6 searches
>per day against the logs, and each was taking upwards of 20 minutes,
>completely shutting off listserv for other functions.  Since the
>searches of a day were often from the same person, they arrived
>one after another, effectively cutting off listserv service for over
>an hour.  It was starting to happen too often.  Making the logs
>private seemed to be the only solution.  I look at other options again,
>but I'm not sure what they are.
 
IMHO, to have a 9-year archive with restricted access is a little crazy.  In
any event, regaining access is straightforward enough, although it may clog
up thge listserv a bit with lots of duplicate 'dummy' subscriptions.  I
suppose the intention may be to refuse MARIST subscriptions to people who
use the database search facilty a lot - but that seems the antithesis of
common sense for a 'public' archive (preventing access to those who need it
most!).
 
From what Harry has said, it looks to me as if the problem would be solved
if the archive and searching facility was totally separated from the other
LISTSERV activities; database searches could then go on independently and
would not upset anything else.  Would that be so difficult to implement?
 
John
 
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Dr John Whittington,        Voice:      +44 1296 730225
Mediscience Services        Fax:        +44 1296 738893
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Buckingham  MK18 4EL, UK    CompuServe: 100517,3677
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