I've put together a VERY crude "to be improved when I have time" LISTSERV-based bulletin board of the kind you suggest. One of LISTSERV's disks has READPW=ALL, and the list is set up for archiving to that disk. A trivial exec provides user access. I have not yet modified MAILBOOK to behave "better" when dealing with a read-only disk, nor to keep high-water marks. I attach my BBOARD EXEC, and a sample list. I have supposed that this idea was of sufficiently wide interest to justify a reply to the list; please forgive me if you disagree. -------------------- Included file BBOARD EXEC ------------------------ /* BBOARD EXEC The format of this command is: BBOARD <listname> [ ( <options> [ ) ] ] where <listname> is the name of a distribution list maintained by LISTSERV@IRLEARN <options> are not available yet The purpose of the program is to allow the user to browse through mail sent to <listname>. This mail is presented in a MAILBOOK environment (see HELP CMS MAILBOOK), with a separate NOTEBOOK file for each month in which there was mail. */ parse arg listnames '(' options if listnames = '' | listnames = '?' then signal explain public_disc = "LISTSERV 203" link_address = 203 alphabet = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ' makebuf 'QUERY DISK ( STACK LIFO' modes=alphabet do while disc <> 'CUU' pull . disc mode . if disc <> 'CUU' then, modes=delstr(modes,pos(left(mode,1),modes),1) end dropbuf filemode=left(modes,1) 'QUERY DASD ( STACK LIFO' discs='' do while queued()>0 pull . disc . discs = discs disc end found=0 do i=0 until found ix=d2x(i) if length(ix)=1 then ix='0'||ix ix='2'||ix if pos(ix,discs)=0 then found=1 end cuu=ix 'CP LINK' public_disc cuu 'RR' do i = 1 to words(listnames) listname = word(listnames,i) "ACCESS" cuu filemode||"/"||filemode "EXEC MAILBOOK" listname "*" filemode end "RELEASE " filemode "(DET" set cmstype rt Exit Explain: "HELP BBOARD" exit -------------------- Included file BBOARD HELPCMS ---------------------- .cs 1 on .fo BBOARD .sp Use the BBOARD command to browse one or more Bulletin Boards. These are public notebooks each containing messages relating to a particular topic. The bulletin boards are maintained by LISTSERV, which periodically creates a new notebook for each topic - usually once a month. .sp .cs 1 off .cs 2 on The format of the BBOARD command is: .sp .bx 1 13 79 .in 2 BBOARD topic (topic ...) .bx off -------------------- Included file LASER-L LIST ----------------------- * * Laser Printer Information Distribution List * * Review= Public Subscription= Public Send= Public * Notify= Yes Ack= No Files= Yes * Reply-to= "[log in to unmask]",Respect * Notebook= Yes,G,Monthly,Public * Validate= All commands * * Owner= EARNUCD@IRLEARN UCD Postmaster (Niall O'Reilly) * * Receives mail from ARPAnet LASER-LOVERS distribution list * * List of subscribers omitted