On Fri, 27 Sep 1996 15:29:20 PDT Peter Rauch said:
>> Date:         Fri, 27 Sep 1996 17:45:29 -0400
>> From: David Nessl <[log in to unmask]>
>>
>> I have a group who wants to create lists to which only people (including
>> non-subscribers) on campus (in the UFL.EDU domain) can post.
>
>You don't describe what their objective is. It is difficult to rationalize
>any particular "solution" without being told _why_ non-subscribers should
>be allowed to post. Most rationales wither under the light of day.
>Maybe you don't have a problem?
 
Peter... you don't really work at a university, do you?  Sure, there are
lots of reasons why a non-subscriber might need to post.  Here's one...
Dean Smith is out of town and can't get her laptop to dialup right, but
She has important information for the Dean's Committee on Agricultural
Pesticides (DCAP) that must go out *now*.  So she calls her trusted
assistant Jon and asks him to post this important information to the
list... or how about this one... There's a list for the Law School
Student Body, and one of the law profs wants to tell them that there's
going to be an on-campus meeting on the infamous free speech issue that
they might be interested in.  The prof may not be at all interested in the
day-to-day chitchat on the list, but certainly this meeting would be
something that at least some of the students would want to attend.
 
Need more examples?  These kinds of things happen on our campus every day.
 
>> ...  Likewise, they don't want to turn on
>> confirmation because it will confuse the M.D.s and secretaries too much.
>
>Well, let your advisors go tell the MD's and sec's that they're too
>dumb to type "r" for reply, and "ok" for a confirmation message....
>If your advisors don't want that task, then ignore them, they're not
>committed enought to the idea.
 
This may not be your field of expertise, but we are talking about reality
here.  *grin*