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Re: PHYS-L Needs New Owner and New Home!!



Dick's description of the work for and characteristics needed in a list
manager seem right on the mark both from my experience managing lists and
observations of others who manage lists. The lists I manage have a
combined total approximately that of Phys-L but generally not the level or
constancy of traffic of Phys-L.

The work:
There are a lot of error messages that come through and the more traffic on
the list, the more of these error messages. Yet, the vast, vast majority
are reporting things which are either only temporary or are ones over which
you as a list manager have no control (usually because the problem is at a
list member's site). Hence most are best ignored (because most of the time
they just go away) unless they become chronic. The chronic are best handled
by dropping the name from the subscription list, until it can be sorted out
at the other end.

The rest of the work is helping people subscribe, unsubscribe or change
subscriptions. This generally takes little time as it can be handled by
e-mail notes to the listserv/listproc software with simple commands.

Phys-L seems mature and large enough that it "has a life of its own" which
requires little intervention from the manager to "keep it rolling". This
was not always true, but that is my sense of the history of the list.

What's needed:
I cannot sufficiently underscore the value of making use of a site which
has savvy folks to run the listserving program. This includes a local,
avid spam cop. The fact that you've seen next to no spam on Phys-L is
indicative of how well this has been handled at uwf. It is not always the
case that a list manager must reside at the physical location of the
machine running the list. So one possibility is a willing site and an
eager manager at another site. I do occassionally talk f2f with my gurus
who handle the listserv software and fellow list managers, but most of the
time communications are by e-mail and by phone. ...something to think
about. It does take patience and people skills dealing with both the
systems folks who maintain the net and listserv software at the host site
and dealing with members of the list.

Listserv vs. web page:
I vote very much against anything that would eliminate a listserving
solution. Joint ones, okay, but I have used web page mail and it is
generally very primitive compared to things like Eudora, as one example.
Having to jump from page to page in a web based system for each list one is
on is cumbersome even in settings where one has a fast network at work, but
having to pay to get this over phone lines would be bad. Not everyone has
good net access. Phys-L is international.

We owe a lot to Dick for what he has actually done with this list and the
inspiration he has provided. Thanks, Dick.

Dewey

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Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr. Phone: (208)385-3105
Professor of Physics Dept: (208)385-3775
Department of Physics/MCF421/418 Fax: (208)385-4330
Boise State University dykstrad@bsumail.idbsu.edu
1910 University Drive Boise Highlanders
Boise, ID 83725-1570 novice piper

"Physical concepts are the free creations of the human mind and
are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external
world."--A. Einstein in The Evolution of Physics with L. Infeld,
1938.
"Every [person's] world picture is and always remains a construct
of [their] mind and cannot be proved to have any other existence."
--E. Schrodinger in Mind and Matter, 1958.
"Don't mistake your watermelon for the universe." --K. Amdahl in
There Are No Electrons, 1991.
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