Mike:

That was some good information and History about the listserv. I wasn't
aware about the 'historical' part at all. It's been less then three weeks
since I joined the listserv. Thanks.

Great job!

It's good that more people actually know about all the advantages of this
listserv now. Also, people like the listserv so I guess that's the way to
go. We use the same listserv system at our institution too.

--
Mauneel D Desai
Research Specialist, Information Systems
Project Coordinator, RiSC
Team Leader
Office of Vice Chancellor for Research
University of Illinois @ Chicago
Ph: (312) 413 - 7713

-----Original Message-----
From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@HRINET.ORG] On Behalf Of
Mike L. Varney
Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 3:20 PM
To: xxxxxx@HRINET.ORG
Subject: [RESADM-L] Why The List is the Way It Is...

There's been lots of discussion on RESADM-L in the last week or two
regarding all the details of running RESADM-L and the prospects of moving
to a Google Group.  I'd like to address a couple of the comments made.

First, whomever was saying that you can't search RESADM-L's archives just
isn't reading the tagline at the bottom of EVERY list message for the last
3 years or so... <grin>  RESADM-L has always been searchable even back in
the days it as hosted on a mainframe.  In fact, when I implemented the
web-based interface to the listserv, I was able to import all the archives
from the mainframe; so, when you do like the tag says and go to
http://www.hrinet.org, you can search all the way back to when Liz ran the
list in the early 90's.  The fact that people re-ask common questions is
just due to human nature; it has nothing to do with the availability of
search.  In fact, many people (especially in this industry) will
INTENTIONALLY ask the same questions again in case there's been a procedure
or rule change.

Next... regarding the aspect of a "private" versus a "public" list.
RESADM-L is a "public" list, meaning that anyone can add themselves to the
list at any time.  While you would think that would open the list up to
Spam, surprisingly it doesn't - - the fact that the ListServ requires a
confirmation ("ok") email from the user foils all the spam senders out
there.  Keeping the list as a "public" list allows us to facilitate as many
people to come onto and off the list as possible.  Given the lists's topic,
it's in our best interest to have as many industry-related users out there
as possible in one forum.

There was a comment out there about the "vacation" messages sent to someone
who sends something to the list.  There's a reason for that too.  A few
years back a new standard for Internet Email came out (one of those
annoying RFCs) which said that all Internet email should use a proper From:
tag.  Meaning, that the From tag should list who the email REALLY came
from, *even when the message is from a list*.  Those who were on the list
years ago remembered how easy it was to identify the list emails, as they
were all from "xxxxxx@HRINET.ORG".  Now, they show up as being from the
person who sent the note, with a Reply-To of the list's address.  Any list
provider which doesn't conform to this standard will run the risk of being
hit by spam filters.

Similarly, someone mentioned in-box clutter.  ListServ has *always*
supported not only the "DIGEST" setting (so you get just 1 message a day),
or the "NOMAIL" setting (where you don't get ANY email, and can look at the
web archive to read the messages).  The list jumped up significantly in
traffic a few years ago when we upgraded our server.  If the traffic is too
heavy, I'd recommend switching to Digest mode.

Running the ListServ is no walk in the park; it's not in my job
responsibilities here at HRI, HRI gets nothing more than the rest of you do
(knowledge) by running the list, and in fact we pay about $3000 a year in
licensing fees to maintain the software (in addition to running the
server).  Talking about in-box clutter... the list generates between 300
and 400 email messages a day for me, 99% of which are just deleted.  And
that doesn't include fixing all the changed email addresses out there for
people.

As always... any questions, post 'em here.

-- Mike Varney / HRI

======================================================================
 Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
 subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
 via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists")
======================================================================

======================================================================
 Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
 subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
 via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists")
======================================================================