Recently I wrote: > > I asked this in the GIMPS forum, but haven't seen any answer > > there yet. So will you please point out what I overlooked?
... to which Brian Beesley replied: > Sorry, I don't read the forum. It's inconvenient & expensive for > those of us that have pay-as-you-go dialup access; whilst I'm at > work I simply don't have the time to mess with such things. There > is no cable service within 40 miles of me, the nearest > ADSL-enabled exchange is about the same distance away, satellite > "broadband" is ferociously expensive & still depends on a dial-up > line for outbound data; the density of population round here is > such that there's almost no chance of a wireless mesh working, > either. I hadn't meant to suggest that Mr. Beesley should actually go look at the GIMPS Forum discussion. I meant only that I'd failed to get an answer when I posed my question elsewhere. BUT ... put that together with: Earlier in Mr. Beesley's response, he suggested something (time limits on right to an exponent assignment) that happened to have already been significantly discussed in the GIMPS Forum. In fact, if I correctly interpret the Forum discussion of that idea, it seems almost certain that that function will be added in the next Primenet server software upgrade. So Mr. Beesley and anyone else who hadn't read the Forum, whatever their reasons, _didn't yet know that a major Primenet server software change had already been discussed in the recent past and had practically been decided-upon_, because none of that Forum discussion had been reported to the Mersenne mailing list. ***** It looks to me like we have the potential for a major information schism between the Forum-haves and Forum-have-nots, if there continue to be major Forum discussions that go unreported to the Mersenne mailing list. ***** What should/can be done to ensure that those who can't/don't read the Forum are alerted to, and can contribute to, important topics discussd on the GIMPS Forum and are informed of important announcements/decisions posted on the Forum? Richard Woods _________________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
