This  note is  being sent  to all  the people  who have  not yet  answered the
"release 1.6 for EARN" survey, with a copy to the LSTSRV-L list.
 
I  have, so  far,  received only  positive  replies to  the  survey, with  the
exception of one  "I don't know". However,  only a minority of  the sites have
answered; I can see 4 reasons to this:
 
1. Some people are checking with their management, which may take time. Fine.
 
2. Some  people may  be worried  that getting release  1.6 might  prevent them
   forever from getting LISTEARN, or vice-versa.  Personally, I do not plan to
   exclude  sites  which have  signed  the  LISTEARN  agreement from  the  1.6
   programme, although they  will have to sign a new  LISTSERV agreement since
   signing the  LISTEARN one cancels  the previous  agreement with me.  I have
   asked the Exec  whether or not they would cancel  the LISTEARN agreement of
   sites getting 1.6 from me, and Frode Greisen answered that they do not plan
   to do this, "although the BoD might in time decide otherwise".
 
3. There might  be a number of people  who don't know what they  would do, and
   figured that there  was therefore no need  to answer the survey.  This is a
   wrong assumption, because  it gives the false impression that  92% of sites
   definitely want 1.6. If  you are in that case, please  do: TELL LISTSERV AT
   LEPICS /EARNV16 ?
 
4. There are of course people who do  not understand what this is about, or do
   not care,  and will follow the  path requiring the least  action from them;
   answering a survey requires action, so they haven't done it :-)
 
Anyway, the number of requests has exceeded the threshold below which it would
clearly be  a waste of  time for  everybody to set  up a mechanism  to provide
release 1.6  to EARN sites. Unfortunately,  it has not yet  reached the higher
threshold above which it is absolutely  clear that providing 1.6 to EARN sites
will solve the  current messy situation, rather than increasing  the amount of
mess.  Since  only  a  minority  of  people  answered,  it  is  impossible  to
extrapolate the results of the survey -  maybe other people will answer in the
same  proportion when  their management  has made  up their  mind, maybe  only
people who were  interested have answered and everybody else  will say NO. So,
please make an effort to answer this survey.
 
  Eric