Message-Id: <199604080001.UAA00388@CS.UTK.EDU>
Date:        Mon, 8 Apr 1996 01:55:47 +0200
From: Eric Thomas <ERIC@VM.SE.LSOFT.COM>
Subject:     Re: Headers and agents
To: drums@cs.utk.edu

If we  are seriously going to  discuss what mailings can,  should, cannot
and should not be  doing, I would like to humbly  request that people who
do not have at  least 3 years of hands on  experience with the management
of at  least a  dozen mailing  lists, of which  at least  one must  be in
excess  of 2,000  subscribers, kindly  abstain from  formulating opinions
that fall into one of the following categories:

1. "This is totally useless and should not be allowed".

2. "This cannot possibly work and must be prohibited".

3. "Mailing lists are not meant to be used for X".

4. "Nobody in his right mind would want to do X, so let's ban it".

This is not meant as a direct reply to the recent discussions, which were
just the straw that  broke the camel's back. I have seen  a lot of strong
statements  about mailing  lists on  this group  that suggest  that their
authors simply  do not have the  required experience to pass  judgment on
existing praxis.

  Eric