Wirt Atmar wrote:

> This question is really more for Jeff Kell than anyone else. I've
> noticed over the past several weeks that the torrent of messages that
> are posted on HP3000-L only becomes a trickle by the time they reach
> comp.sys.hp.mpe -- and the postings that do make it seem to be a
> somewhat random selection at that.

Agreed, but there is little I can do from my end.  Our gateway services
started out "gratis" from American University and remain there.  As we
do not host a newsfeed locally, there is little I can do except rely on
their donated services.  Back when their "volunteer extraordinaire" was
at American, Jim McIntosh, things ran rather flawlessly.  This has not
been the case over recent years.

> Similarly, messages posted on comp.sys.hp.mpe only infrequently make
> it over into HP3000-L nowadays, even though newsgroup-posted messages
> are becoming increasingly rare, in part I'm sure because the
> impression anyone would have who might be monitoring the newsgroup is
> that it is one of very low activity.

Agreed again.  I have never advocated reading the newsgroup to the
serious readership out there, the propagation delay is considerably
higher than the mailing list.  But granted there are advantages to
getting the newsgroup delivery format if response time is not a
priority.

> Thus my question is: have we disconnected ourselves from
> comp.sys.hp.mpe, either purposely or in fact only?

I have made no changes, and "trust to faith" the gateway functionality.
Recently the propagation is extremely slow, so bad that many articles
are "expired" by the time they reach some news servers and thus die in
transit (in both directions).

As Joe Geiser pointed out, we were entertaining moving the gateway
functionality to one of his servers, but the "real" functionality that
was expected was simply not there in his tests.  There is an option to
move the HP3000-L list to another format (his suggested web-based
message board) but aside from the obvious analogy to giving up my
first-born child, I fear that may alienate some readers of the list.
E-mail is one of those "least common denominator" delivery mechanisms
available (though technology continues to press forward).  And the next
release of Listserv (in fairly widespread beta) has more extensive web
based access facilities which should help.  If I had more time I would
have jumped on the beta bandwagon, but I don't have that luxury at the
moment.

I can only suggest, plead, encourage, etc., that readers avail
themselves of the mailing list where possible; you can feel free to
complain to me when it doesn't work :-)  Such is not the case with the
newsgroup; at this point use it at your own risk.  If the volume is too
high, I repeat three other options:

* digest mode - a daily compilation of postings - send mail to
  [log in to unmask] with text 'set hp3000-L digest'

* index mode - a daily index of the day's postings, select articles you
  care to read and mail back to listserv for the text - send mail to
  [log in to unmask] with text 'set hp3000-L index'

* web archive - browse http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html for
  the current week's postings.  It follows articles in chronological
  order, by thread, etc.

Jeff Kell <[log in to unmask]>
HP3000-L List Dude