Hello Becky, John, and List gurus,
I'm in the exact same boat, so if anybody has any recommendations, I'd very
much appreciate a public response.
My list was moved within one day and I'm *pissed*. The ironic part is that
I have a nice, live server running Redhat 6.1 that I could be running my
list on (majordomo is already installed), but I kept my list at Esosoft.
Why?
-Convenience - it was worth it to me to pay $5 a month and not have to worry
about OS or SMTP issues, and to get their silly reports.
-Clueless - Although I'm very secure with actual MD administration (figured
out niceties like how to filter HTML and certain addresses), I have *no*
experience with Linux or Unix, other than setting up a workstation via FTP 2
weeks ago. I am unfortunately a windows child (and not liking it anymore).
So either I move to another ASP or I become competent with Linux quickly.
Anybody want to recommend a book or three?
Thank you,
Andrew P. Tasi
----- Original Message -----
From: John Stevenson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Becky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, December 17, 1999 4:38 AM
Subject: Re: Looking for a new list server
> >Hi Everyone,
> >
> >Someone else may have already asked but I just joined this list as I am
> >desperately looking for a new list server using Majordomo. Every list
owner
> >with Esosoft has been told that they have merged with Topica and all our
lists
> >will be moved within a week. Some people's lists have been moved within
the
> >day. Many of us don't want advertising and we are looking for a new
server as
> >soon as possible. We also don't want to loose the control over our lists
as
> >we have been handling our own Config files. We need something with
digests
> >and archives as well. We were paying $5.00 a month for our service with
> >Esosoft but anything reasonable would be considered. Can any of you
recommend
> >a server which you are happy with? It would be greatly appreciated by
many
> >homeless lists.
>
> For what it's worth you have my sympathy, and if I find a home for my
> list, which has also just been swallowed by Topica, I'll let you know.
>
> Topica does provide digests, though this is far from obvious.
> Individual subscribers can switch to digest mode at the web site.
> Topica also archives messages.
>
> The ads on messages are currently trivial; they are just an ad for
> the site itself.
>
> I've been with Topica for a few days and my biggest objection is the
> sheer time it takes to do anything with their foul and kludgy web
> site. Clearly they *could* provide the kind of email interface we're
> used to, but they choose not to, because they want to drive traffic
> to their site and eyeballs for the banner ads there. I estimate it's
> going to take me an extra couple of hours a month to run my list via
> their site. At a sensible costing of my time, it would be cheaper to
> pay typical ISP charges for a majordomo-hosted list.
>
> That last point is the one I want to spread among the list-manager
> community here: these web-based 'free' list services are far from
> that, when you factor in the additional time it takes to hack through
> web interfaces designed by clueless idiots instead of banging simple
> commands at majordomo via email.
> --
>
> John Stevenson
> Writer, editor, mountain bike bloke
>
