On Saturday, in article <2v5jonF2hmf8kU1@uni-berlin.de>
mikecoxlinux@yahoo.com "Mike Cox" wrote:
> Woodchuck Bill wrote:
>
> > Mike Cox <mikecoxlinux@yahoo.com> wrote in
> > news:2v5e77F2hdbblU1@uni-berlin.de:
> >
> >> I cannot handle the volume of email that a mailing list would place
> >> on my
> >> inbox.
> >
> > Ever heard of a digest version?
> >
>
> I don't care. Its too much of a hassle to dig through without being able to
> google groups search it.
Mike makes here a VERY valid point about the mailing list vs newsgroups
controversy: often there is no means to search past articles from the
mailing list unless one maintains one's own complete archive thereof. In
contrast, posts of articles to *public* newsgroups (which includes the
Big-8, alt.*, and thousands of national and other hierarchies, such as
demon.*) are generally[1] archived by GoogleGroups, and thereby readily
searchable.
Private so-called newsgroups, which are carried on only one (or a handful
of cooperating) server(s), and mailing lists ditto, need to make their
own arrangements for archiving (which they often do) and providing a
search capability (which they often don't).
Newsgroups are much more flexible from the end-users' POV; however, there
is a huge percentage of Internet users that are completely unaware of
the existence of the concept. In contrast, they perceive using a mailing
list is no different to mailing one person (as, sadly, can often be
observed when mailing list participants use nasty habits picked up from
using Outlook Express in inter-office memoranda).
[1] Except, of course, where the poster uses X-No-Archive: Yes
--
Brian {Hamilton Kelly} bhk@dsl.co.uk
"I don't use Linux. I prefer to use an OS supported by a large multi-
national vendor, with a good office suite, excellent network/internet
software and decent hardware support."