I personally agree that DISTRIBUTE should be open for use by anybody. HOWEVER... I don't see why this particular case can't be implemented as a mailing list, though. This has SEVERAL advantages: 1) You don't have to screw with any of the gateway software already in place. The WISCVM stuff is screwey enough *without* having to worry about repackaging some files, maybe, if it's needed... 2) You know beforehand who is on the list. All I'd have to do is get LISTSERV to not run lists flagged as being in a certain class (junk mail, off-node, whatever). (Hint - this is a mod request... :-) If all else fails, I can always just run those lists off a second LISTSERV which would get AUTOLOGGED late at night. 3) You don't have to worry about the digest at the other end making up the distribute list. I know for a fact that this could get VERY hairy at the ARPA end, as currently the digesters mail one copy to each person on the list. It would require that for DISTRIBUTE, the digester program flag all BitNet users and lump them for special processing. With a mailing list, they just have to add the one address to their target table, and remove all the .BITNET user addresses. No hassle. 4) LISTSERV will make a user subscribe to the appropriate server. Just have the digest lists at a fair number of places, with open subscription. 5) With a mailing list, control is back in the hands of the postmaster, as some sites have requested. 6) With a mailing list, we can fix it so that MAIL can read it, and probably also fix the Reply-To: to point back at the master list on the ARPA side so that their reply gets put into the digest rather than floating around Bitnet. This is currently a flake with the Unix-Wizards digest, where a lot of the postings arrive seperately, because they did not go through the digester. Given all of this, I cannot advocate any solution that uses DISTRIBUTE. I'm not saying that it's not a good idea, I'm saying that it is not a good solution for THIS particular problem. If you can get DISTRIBUTE to overcome all of these problems, then I'll change my mind. Valdis Kletnieks