🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <BOB.90Aug22102618@volitans.MorningStar.Com> bob@MorningStar.Com (Bob Sutterfield) writes:

>A mail-based archive server is an impolite and destructive way to
>distribute large amounts of information, and should be discouraged in
>such applications.

Your point about mail service possibly involving other people's money
is well taken, but if this message is in response to my request
for information about mail servers, it doen't really apply.

What I want to do is to set up something resembling a library service
within our organization to help avoid duplication of effort by various
branches.  The transport is already established and would be unlikely
to send anything beyond our own offices.
It seems like this is something that every group with an established
electronic mail service would need, so I'm kind of surprised
that the current crop of programs seem pretty much oriented towards
distributing program sources.

>Any number of schemes are possible, usually based around a reliable
>file transfer protocol.  Pay-per-use archives run today using Kermit,
>UUCP and Fido request protocols, and probably innumerable others.
>Note that in saying "pay-per-use" I mean paying for connectivity
>(usually the phone company), not paying for the privilege of access
>nor for the archive contents themselves.

How would you like to train a few hundred people to adapt to
"any number of schemes"?  These are people who aren't particularly
interested in knowing anything about computers, but they already
know how to use a mail program for other reasons.

>But MBASs are so popular, and so useful to so many people, I often
>feel like a voice crying out in the wilderness.  Please, at least
>provide and encourage other, more polite distribution means.  I
>wouldn't want such a good thing as people's desire to share to be a
>contributing cause to the dismantling of open networks!

On the other hand, why should an end user need to know anything
about more than one transport interface?  Virtually every other
question of human time vs. computer resources these days is
answered with "computer resources are cheap".   If mail transport
of bulky items is a problem, then perhaps we should fix the
problem rather than avoiding it. 

Les Mikesell
  les@chinet.chi.il.us