Hello,
Thought I could sneak away for a couple of weeks since this list
has been so well behaved for the last couple of years. Guess not.
Just finished reading through most of the mail from the last couple
of weeks. Looks like there was a little panic and stampede to get
another list started due to a problem that appeared to emanate
from the list host. Right now it appears that mail is flowing normally.
A few points. This list has now been running for around 4 years at
the same host. The timing of e-mail to different people and parts of
the country has always been variable depending on many factors.
There have been many short periods of time when the list did not
function smoothly because of ISP problems, host problems or
Internet problems .I've run lists on different hosts and they all have
problems from time to time. Also as javilk pointed out, unless one
sets up many private regional forwarding stations there is no
guarantee of delivery and timing on the net. It varies based on
where you are, the route the mail takes, your ISP,. my ISP, the
host, the receiver, etc. and this seems to be true regardless of list
host. Having signed up to the temp list, the timings in the message
headers of both lists indicate a variable time delay. On the temp-
list I have been getting messages within three to four hours of their
being sent. On this list it varies. Last week when there were
problems there was no mail for several days and it got backed up
for delivery several days later. The most recent mail I have been
receiving within a few minutes to a couple of hours from being sent.
Yes the list has problems from time to time but in general it runs
pretty smoothly.
All that aside, during all the years the list has been operation the
timing has never really been an issue and I have not seen any
sense of urgency on that. My experience running lists at other
hosts has also had the same issues and problems associated. The
reality seems to be that everyone has problems or problem periods
from time to time.
So, I would not rush out and change hosts for the list unless
someone can show me one they have experience with that does
not have and has not had any problems and is reasonably priced.
I know that there are now many free list hosting services. I don't
use them because I don't like getting inundated with advertising
when I don't have to.
There has been very little spam on this list over the past four
years. The main reason is that the membership list is not for sale
and is not available for listing. I have made a mistake once in trying
to send a non list message to all and had a bunch of addresses in
a CC instead of a BCC. Other than that one glitch I have never had
the list available in any form and was not very happy to see a list of
members in an e-mail I received. I know you can cull the names of
posters by just subscribing to the list and extracting the names,
but that is only a small part of the subscriber list. There are many
who only read for the most part.
I can offer a partial solution to this. The new BBS Forum, which
is listed at the bottom of these e-mails has an e-mail option
associated with it so you can get an e-mail of any message posted
to the BBS. These messages get sent out as individual e-mails
and not through list software so their arrival is more like that of
regular e-mail than list mail and seems to have a better timeframe
associated with it. The downside is that you have to go to the BBS
on the web to post a message, although this will change with the
next version of the software.
If anyone has a reasonably priced list host with guaranteed timing
and delivery I'd be interested in hearing about it. I don't think we
need a temp list as I don't think most people want two copies of
each message. For those interested, Clever.net was bought by
Sage Networks about a year ago. Sage is a very large provider and
there have been some glitches during the incorporation of Clever
into Sage but the end result appears to be an overall improvement
in service.
As I've said in the past this list is here for its members, so its
really up to you as to what you want to do. You can email me at
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Thanks,
Al Silverberg
listowner
web-consultants
____________________________________________________________________
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Join The NEW Web Consultants Association FORUMS and CHAT:
Register Today at: http://just4u.com/forums/
Web Consultants Web Site : http://just4u.com/webconsultants
Give the Gift of Life This Year...
Just4U Stop Smoking Support forum - helping smokers for
over three years-tell a friend: http://just4u.com/forums/
To get 500 Banner Ads for FREE
go to http://www.linkbuddies.com/start.go?id=111261
---------------------------------------------------------------------
