We are at 1.5i. Nevertheless:
 
Please update your PEER NAMES entry, it takes less than 5 minutes.
Please update your LISTSERV, it takes less than 5 minutes.
Please update your MAILER tables, it takes less than 5 minutes.
Please update this mailing list to avoid a loop, it takes less
than 5 minutes.
Please apply NETNEWS patch #62845, it takes less than 5 minutes.
Please do this, it takes less than 5 minutes.
Please do that, it takes less than 5 minutes.
And so on.
After you have done this, explain to an user how to reach a site
in Nowosibirsk or even more complicated a CD some hundred meters
away from here (takes less than 5 minutes), throw your boss out
of your room (17 seconds), and do all the other 5-minutes-tasks.
 
All of the above is good for the network and for the users, it
is all reasonable. I try my best to find all this 5-minutes-chunks.
They clobber my day and prevent me finding a sequence of 5 continuous
hours to complete an improvement of some software (which would give
me a chance to send out messages "please update, it takes less than
5 minutes and is a real winner").
 
An increasing part of my time is dedicated to work which is triggered
by external factors. I can't continue this way.
 
>   I have decided that I have waited  long enough (nearly 1 month unless I have
> missed something)
 
I can't guarantee that I'm able to do all this 5-minutes-tasks at the
right time, e.g. because I can't guarantee for my health. A few years
ago I was in hospital for some MONTHS. That was in the pre-network age
and my colleagues have had no troubles with software which crashed
due to missing hand-holding.
 
I don't criticize Eric. I like his work very much. I understand that
such a distributed software system doesn't allow an arbitrary version
mix. But if running a network-wide known Listserv means that I have
to guarantee a certain amount of work time (which is not known in
advance), I have to quit. There are two alternatives for me:
 
- All Listservs are considered as ONE distributed software system.
  This means they will be automatically updated. We would provide
  nothing else than CPU cycles and disk space. Listserv and Eric
  would be considered as built-in part of the network just like
  the leased BSC line and the PTT (Eric, sorry for comparing you with
  the German PTT :-)
- Our PEER NAMES entry will be deleted, the peer-linked lists will
  be removed. Nobody has to take care whether we have Listserv and
  which version of Listserv is running.
 
I'm waiting now for one (1) month to see something happen :-)
 
  Thomas