Bart Addis <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU> wrote:

> Is anybody besides me frustrated that this group communicates with
> a mailing list and not a newsgroup?  It would be much easier to
> follow the threads if this were a newsgroup.
>
> I think that mailing lists can be "gatewayed" to newsgroups by
> people with sufficiently large clues.  Has anybody done this on a
> publicly available news server?  Does anybody know how?
> ....
> Is there any fundamental reason to stick with the mailing list
> format, since this discussion is unmoderated?

    Bart:

    Here's what I wrote on the subject a year ago, when the subject
    last came up on the PICLIST:

    ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------

    The newsgroup-versus-maillist thread pops up here about once
    every six months... Each time, the OVERWHELMING concensus is
    that no one wants to "convert" the list to a newsgroup.

    Moreover, there are strong arguments even against forming an
    automated "gateway" connection between the list and a
    newsgroup... Automatically copying to the list all the crap
    that'll appear on the newsgroup will give us the worst of both
    worlds, and copying in the other direction will put all the
    list-members' e-mail addresses out in the open where they can be
    added to junk-mail mailing lists.

    If anyone wants to start a PIC-centric newsgroup, that's fine...
    Just go to news.announce.newsgroups and start the process.  But
    don't expect to find a lot of support here for any connection
    between the existing list and that newsgroup.

    ------- End of Forwarded Message ------

    -Andy

=== Andrew Warren - fastfwd@ix.netcom.com
=== Fast Forward Engineering - Vista, California
=== http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/2499 (personal)
=== http://www.netcom.com/~fastfwd (business)