Lists, Posting, Network Traffic et al.

[Gene Glass]

Erica Bernstein pointed out on AERA-C yesterday that the number of
duplicate postings to the AERA-* lists is annoying and uses up precious
disk space on local mainframes. Dewey Dykstra suggested some solutions.
I would like to solicit more suggestions for making these lists more
efficient and less obnoxious.
But a little history first. AERA has been in the list business since the
beginning; ERL-L was one of the first LISTSERVs and must now be 7 or 8 years
old. Last October, when ERL-L was transported from Tulane to Arizona State
Univ, we decided to split ERL-L in to eleven lists, one for each AERA
division. The rationale was that ERL-L was too general for specialized
discussion and was in fact discouraging such. That decision seems to have
played out reasonably well; the combined postings to the eleven lists
far outstrip the traffic that ERL-L used to carry. Indeed, the division
format seems to have stimulated discussion, as we hoped it would.
Most subscribers sign up for two or more AERA-* lists; and since I
get a confirmation of each subscription, I notice that few subscribers
pick ERL-L at the same time. When I see a job announcement or some other
item of general interest, I often send it to several AERA-* lists and
ERL-L at the same time. Ergo, the annoying multiple postings. We also
have a minor converse problem of people wanting to start fairly specialized
discussins on ERL-L that would be better pursued on -C or -D or -K or
wherever.
How can we fix it?
Exhorting people to please be careful where they post simply chills
discussion and destroys the fun. Turning ERL-L into a house organ to which
only a moderator can post would solve lots of problems (all job ads
could go there, for example), but no matter how many reminders one sends
the majority of subscribers to AERA-* will neglect to subscribe to ERL-L.
Renaming ERL-L to simply AERA would help. Perhaps I could write a patch that
would automatically subscribe persons to ERL-L (to be AERA) whenever they
subscribe to one of the AERA-* lists.

Any other suggestions?

P.S. Traffic problems are really problems of local memory on mainframes.
The INTERNET has a lot of capacity and we needn't feel guilty
about wasting national resources witha few of our job ads. After all,
the traffic we generate in a month doesn't come close to the GIF
files flying world wide from alt.nude.pix in an hour.
Also, local computer managers differ greatly in their stinginess
with disk space. If you get hassled when you have 200 letters
in your account that you haven't had time to read, then tell your
manager to lighten up, and just blow away all the accounts they have
issued that have never been logged on in the last six months.

-------**********======================================**********--------
Gene V Glass Gl...@ASU.BITNET
College of Education Gl...@ASU.EDU
Arizona State University 602-965-2692 Tempe, AZ 85287-2411

[Francine Stayter]

Our college would like to develop a program for students on academic probation t
hat provides support yet ultimately leads students to be responsible learners
. I'd appreciate any information about effective programs in place. F. Stay
ter

[Robert Evan Holloway]

I like the idea of an automatic patch for a general board. The duplicate
postings caused me to consider dropping one of the lists I am on since I could
hardly tell the difference between them. Less general listings will let the
unique interest stand out instead of being lost in a blizzard. And I suppose
this means a moderated list... more work!

[Whitcomb Johnstone]

For what it's worth, perhaps a list devoted to job postings, eg AERAJOBS,
might solve one problem. I think the plan to eventually do away with the
general list will take care of most multiple postings.