On Thu, 01 Oct 1998 20:52:34 EDT, you said: > I don't understand why ListServ is so expencive, and why I can not find > anouther host that has it besides LSoft. Well, I can't speak for other sites, but here's the breakdown on *our* costs (more or less, a lot of guesstimates here): $3,000/yr Listserv software license and support $15,000 IBM RS6000/J30 $10,000/yr fraction of my salary/overhead/etc going towards running Listserv $500/yr Floor space, electricity, backup tapes, etc. Now mind you, this *is* to support 2,500+ lists and 500,000 outbound messages a day... But... That's a hefty chunk of change. As a result, the powers that be have declared that we won't sponsor a list unless it's either owned by a person affiliated with Virginia Tech, or clearly advances the mission of Virginia Tech. We don't charge for the service, so we can't make exceptions - that would get us going down a VERY steep slope, and end up not being able to properly support our university community. And yes, $3K/year is pretty expensive for the software. On the other hand, I know that I'm a pretty good codeslinger myself, but I'd be totally unable to write a product as overall robust and usable as what LSoft provides, on the number of hours/week $3K/year would pay for. Remember that every single Listserv site is either (a) at a commercial provider who is there to Make Money (such as AOL, etc) where it is used as a source of revenue by billing users, or (b) is at a university, company, or organization where it's a tool to support whatever they *are* in business to do. I'm sure that the people at LSoft will be happy to correct me if I'm wrong here. ;) -- Valdis Kletnieks Computer Systems Senior Engineer Virginia Tech