Pre-TNE mail list

A thread of 3 messages, 16 May 1994 to 16 May 1994, in the order they were sent.

#7577 Pre-TNE mail list

John Bucsek · 16 May 1994

I'll keep this short, but here is my .02Cr on splitting the list.  I enjoyed
CT and never really liked MT.  I can deal with TNE.  Except for the change in
the Maneuver Drives I like the new vehicle design better.

I don't want to see the mailing list split.  But seeing how some people pay
for their mail by the byte I can understand not wanting to recieve mail you
don't want.  It is throwing money away to them.  For me mail is part of my
basic service at a local BBS. For $0.25 an hour I can afford extra mail.  So
rather than lose the CT posters, I must say split the list.  I can afford to
subscribe to another mailing list and I will as I'm interested in Traveller in
ALL forms.

The tagging of messages by prefixing them with a CT, MT, or TNE was a great
idea.  And would work if this was a newsgroup and I could use a off line
reader.  With the mailing list though, you still run into the price per byte
for some people.

Again, these are my views, but I believe they make sense.

One last comment on something someone else mentioned.  TSR supports multiple
setting for AD&D.  You're right. Why didn't GDW do the same?  And rather than
the virus, cleaning up after the Rebellion would have taken a few hundred
years anyway.

John Bucsek
[email removed]

#7587 Re: Pre-TNE mail-list

James T Perkins · 16 May 1994 · reply to #7577

Thanks, Mark, for taking the pre-TNE position and expressing it more
eloquently than I have.

The level of contribution today is similar to what the old TML enjoyed,
but the contributor's names and the topics are quite different. The old
TMLers are now no longer listening, and pre-TNE era support, which these
people would love to do, founders due to lack of a forum in which to
discuss it.

The sheer volume of the postings is what turn off several many listeners
- -- even casual listeners frequently drop the TML because they cannot
drink from the fire hose.

The subject line (and enforcement) idea has given me an idea. Currently
TMLers can select three frequencies: nightly, twice-weekly, and archive
bundle. Maybe a better approach is for TML to join the information age
and allow subscribers to select digests automatically cutomized to their
interests, filtering the traffic for them, based on article subject
lines. These digests would allow each subscriber to adjust the traffic
level as well as topical interest.

Users could subscribe to any or all of the following subject interest
areas (notice that existing topical interest lists like CAT could easily
be grafted on as topical subject areas of TML):

	CAT		- Computer-Aided Traveller
	Classic		- Black Book/Traveller Book Ruleset
	MT		- MegaTraveller Ruleset
	TNE		- TNE Ruleset
	Imperium	- Third Imperium Era
	Rebellion	- Rebellion Era
	Regency?	- Regency Era
	Admin		- List Administrivia
	Announce	- New product, list, pbem announcements, etc.
	Miscellaneous	- Stuff that doesn't fit the above

What it would take from me is a serious dedication of time to develop
the filterers and list management. I'd also need to add a robo-admin to
allow people to automatically maintain their list of topical items, and
develop instructions clear enough that even net-newbies can deal with
them.

Sounds like a lot of work, more than I may be willing to chew off.
Still, it's interesting. I'll let you know if there's any chance this is
doable.

In the mean time, it would probably be wise for me to set up the simple,
pre-TNE mailing list to stop the exodus today before the Third Imperium
dies in the hearts of its fans.

James

__   __/         /   /	    Internet Traveller Mailing List, Administrator
    /     /  /  /   /	   James T. Perkins in Eugene, Oregon, USA
 __/   __/__/__/ _____/   [email removed]

#7588 Re: Pre-TNE mail-list

Mark Cook · 16 May 1994 · reply to #7587

> Thanks, Mark, for taking the pre-TNE position and expressing it more
> eloquently than I have.

Thanks.  I appear, however, to have ruffled some feathers in the
TNE camp.  Sigh.

> The sheer volume of the postings is what turn off several many listeners
> -- even casual listeners frequently drop the TML because they cannot
> drink from the fire hose.

Well put, and dead on target, IMHO.

> Users could subscribe to any or all of the following subject interest
> areas (notice that existing topical interest lists like CAT could easily
> be grafted on as topical subject areas of TML):
>
> 	CAT		- Computer-Aided Traveller
> 	Classic		- Black Book/Traveller Book Ruleset
> 	MT		- MegaTraveller Ruleset
> 	TNE		- TNE Ruleset
> 	Imperium	- Third Imperium Era
> 	Rebellion	- Rebellion Era
> 	Regency?	- Regency Era
> 	Admin		- List Administrivia
> 	Announce	- New product, list, pbem announcements, etc.
> 	Miscellaneous	- Stuff that doesn't fit the above
>
> What it would take from me is a serious dedication of time to develop
> the filterers and list management...
>
> Sounds like a lot of work, more than I may be willing to chew off.
> Still, it's interesting. I'll let you know if there's any chance this is
> doable.

I'd be willing to investigate mechanisms to help implement this
scheme (which I like a *lot*) when I get back from Central America,
if you're interested in any help.

> In the mean time, it would probably be wise for me to set up the simple,
> pre-TNE mailing list to stop the exodus today before the Third Imperium
> dies in the hearts of its fans.

Yes, please.  If introduced as a transitional tool (of indeterminate
duration), we can placate the anti-TNE camp (which I sit firmly in),
and then work on a more elegant solution (such as you propose above)
at our leisure.

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 mark f. cook * mark cook consulting * shoestring graphics & printing
2055 sw whiteside dr. * corvallis, or, 97333-1406 * [email removed]
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