I was thinking about this in the shower this morning (always a dangerous proposition to be sure!) and wanted to share this with ya'll. WHEREAS a) many sites are beginning to restrict listserv lists b) some users prefer Usenet groups while others prefer direct e-mail for the same discussion c) listserv lists generally have a higher signal::noise ratio than unmoderated news groups d) listserv lists make usenet group moderation a piece of cake e) listserv lists make multi-moderator newsgroups possible (at least, it will when Eric gets the Moderator: tag for list headers done) f) it will allow for semi-moderation of Usenet groups. In this case, the newsgroup moderator would be the Listserv list, but the list itself would be Send=Public. The Filter: tag could be used for problem posters. g) not everyone can read Usenet groups - an email option would then be available to them. I PROPOSE: That a program be written that receives e-mail and puts the contents into the appropriate Usenet group. Going the other direction could be nice, but my primary focus is on this one way direction (you'll see why later). DISCUSSION: Not being especailly well versed in Usenet lingo, I'm somewhat at a disadvantage here, but I suspect that it should probably handle the the 2 most popular forms of Usenet server protocols: NNTP and INN. I guess this would also mean that this program be written for Unix systems first since it's my belief that most Usenet deamons run there. I know that NETNEWS already does this, but it's not reasonable to expect that the few NETNEWS sites accomidate all the possible Listserv <--> Usenet possibilities. EXAMPLES (real life, I'm already doing this): I am the moderator for a Usenet group that has an estimated 1000 subscribers. The email address for the posts to be delivered is a listserv list (Editor=me). Listserv already nicely puts in a Newsgroup: tag (Newsgroup=group.name). Currently one of the subscribers is a nice NETNEWS site (thanks Jim) that is doing the crossposting chores. The nice-ities about this is: * I can have other Editor= tags for people that always post stuff that should be approved. Significantly less work for me (there's now about 60 of these folks). * After Eric gets the Moderator= tag put in the next version, the posts which come from the other folks can be split up among a group of people (not a small matter when we're talking about 75 posts/day). * I own a different list (Send=Public) that will soon be a Usenet group set up like (F) above, ie it will be a moderated group, but the posts will be sent to the listserv list. What do ya'll think? Is it already done? ------------------------------------------------------------------ Chris Barnes (409) 846-3273 (home) [log in to unmask] (409) 845-9520 (work) "If the mind can conceive it, the body can achieve it." Napoleon Hill (in his book _Think & Grow Rich_)