dbrooks@osf.org (David Brooks) (12/18/90)
I have a question which is mostly directed at Kee, but I think others may have opinions. This forum is carried by the normal netnews fan-out, and by a mailing list maintained at alphalpha. Most people will choose to use either News or Mail; I have no idea what the balance would be (50-50 would be the null hypothesis). Like many people, I have the option of posting or mailing. Which is better for propagation? I'm sure there's experience of this on other gatewayed lists. I assume alphalpha batches up the job of transferring News to Mail and vice versa (it seems to from the way things arrive here). I don't know if it also batches up the mail fan-out. There's the added complication that Kee tries to suppress motif-talk duplicates, so he'd have to wait a reasonable time for motif-talk to get there (here he's at the mercy of our mail hub). So, do I post, get Usenet to fan it out for me in the space of a few hours, and wait for it to arrive at alphalpa and wait again for it to be transferred onto the mail list. That way, half the audience gets it quickly (and starts sending replies) while the other half gets caught in a timewarp). Or do I mail to alphalpha, meaning (if my scenario is right) everybody gets it at much the same time, but after a delay. And does it matter? -- David Brooks dbrooks@osf.org Systems Engineering, OSF uunet!osf.org!dbrooks Delta -- We Love to Show Our Flies.