From britdisc-owner@csv.warwick.ac.uk Tue Sep 19 14:07:32 2000 Received: (from daemon@localhost) by pansy.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.10.1/8.9.3) id e8JD70G11861 for britdisc-outgoing; Tue, 19 Sep 2000 14:07:00 +0100 (BST) Received: from daffodil.csv.warwick.ac.uk (root@daffodil [137.205.192.30]) by pansy.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.10.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id e8JD6xR11855 for <britdisc-real@pansy.csv.warwick.ac.uk>; Tue, 19 Sep 2000 14:06:59 +0100 (BST) Received: from 020-out.hosting.coconut.co.uk (IDENT:root@[195.153.207.133]) by daffodil.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.10.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id e8JD6v814063 for <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>; Tue, 19 Sep 2000 14:06:58 +0100 (BST) Received: from fetchmail.com (IDENT:web@020-out.hosting.coconut.co.uk [195.153.207.133]) by 020-out.hosting.coconut.co.uk (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id OAA03081 for <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>; Tue, 19 Sep 2000 14:06:51 +0100 Message-Id: <200009191306.OAA03081@020-out.hosting.coconut.co.uk> Content-Type: text/plain Content-Disposition: inline Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: MIME-tools 4.104 (Entity 4.116) From: "Ben Ravilious" <ben@ravilious.net> To: britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk Subject: RE: Annoying commercial messages! Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2000 14:06:50 0100 Sender: owner-britdisc@warwick.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Ralf and others, I was considering maybe looking at paying for a premium service from one of the commercial list companies and most of these are full of different settings to regulate who can or cannot post to them. I think a bit more research is warranted to find out whats available out there. I'm not proposing we ditch BD instantly. On the subject of whether Britdisc is great or not, can I draw it's supporters attention to the glaring self-selection issue here! Those who have replied in favour have done so because they are subscribed to Britdisc (and presumably like it!). I know for a fact that there are many players who are not on Britdisc. This is either by choice or because their work forbids them to subscribe to discussion lists. There's no doubt we're going to need something a little more sophisticated than one giant list as the sport grows. As far as an announcement-only list is concerned, we (the organisation that is) may want to reserve the right to email all members in a future association set-up. Whether we do this with a formal eGroup or just a private CC list remains to be seen. I'm also looking into the possibility of setting up a text message service. Anyone know of any funky technology out there? As I said, paid-for services are something we can consider if its worth it. Ben > You know, I still don't see what people's problems are with BritDisc. True, > I've still never got round to making the archive site more friendly, and > have little motivation to do this at present (it was hacked together quickly > because after about 9 months, someone wanted something they'd deleted). If > anyone wants to do a proper archive, I have a copy of all messages from > about the 40th. > > eGroups and all the rest won't offer you the advantages you think you'll > get. It certainly won't prevent spam. In fact, it'll probably make you more > open to spam as the mailing address is so much easier to find. And it'll > certainly force you to look at advertising chosen by eGroups and every > message will have the usual eGroups advertising at the bottom. > > All mail coming to Britdisc is filtered through Warwick's spam filters, so > most spam will be rejected before it even gets near the list. In addition, > BritDisc is set up so that only members of the list can post. > > Also the limit of 40k per message is intentional - I deliberately set that > up so that people wouldn't send Word documents to the list. It can be > increased, but most people don't want to receive big mails as they're > connecting from dial-up. I've seen this touted as a limitation of BritDisc. > It is not. > > In fact, all you gain by moving to eGroups is by having a "pretty" web > interface to subscribe and manage the list. Most intelligent people can > follow the subscription instructions, and managing the list only needs to be > done by one person. This is all offset by having to make sure that everyone > remembers to subscribe to the new group. And everyone having to use a web > browser to change their account subscription. > > Yes, perhaps moving BritDisc to a more announcement role, and creating a > discussion forum would be good. But I don't think eGroups is the way to go > on that front; basically I'm opposed to having advertising subsidising our > essentially private mail, when there are enough options for us doing it > within the British Ultimate community. I'm going to look at available > packages for a discussion mailing lists. > > Ralf > -- > Ranulf Doswell, Digital Asylum Limited > Phone: 024 7663 2767 (intl +4424 7663 2767) > Fax: 024 7663 4370 (intl +4424 7663 4370) > Mobile: 07968 199 662 (intl +4479 6819 9662) > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: owner-britdisc@warwick.ac.uk > > [mailto:owner-britdisc@warwick.ac.uk]On Behalf Of British Ultimate > > Federation > > Sent: 18 September 2000 19:27 > > To: britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk > > Subject: Re: Annoying commercial messages! > > > > > > Dear all, > > > > When I get around to it, I intend to look at a replacement for Britdisc, > > something along the lines of a premium Egroups, Smartgroups or Listbot > > account. Because we know there are people out there who want to be kept > > informed but would prefer to miss out on the flame wars we are considering > > splitting Britdisc into two separate lists. One would be purely for the > > debating society and the other would be an announcement-only list. > > > > Does this meet with everyone's approval? > > > > Cheers > > > > Ben Ravilious > > Secretary > > British Ultimate Federation > > >