[ATM] Time to change the list format?

[hermit <hermit@outofoptions.org>]

I have been wondering and discussing off list lately if it is time to 
make a change to a 'forum' format.  The reasons are various, but I get 
subscribe notices for the list and and every once and a while they seem 
to spike.  Last night AOL bounced all of our digests.  Excessive bounces 
will then disable that members subscription.  We had trouble with AOL 
before because they didn't like an url in Bob May's sig.  Bob was kind 
enough to change it, but this situation will only get worse now that AOL 
has decided they want to charge for 'bulk' email.  I guess we triggered 
their financial interests last night. :(  Also, we have two servers 
sending out mail because of various isp's having different black lists.  
Our main server is blacklisted by some simply because it is in Asia.

Another reason would be to make the list 'more visible' to the rest of 
the world.  Also, there are still people out there that are paranoid 
about giving out email addresses because of spam.  Overall, I think we 
can improve the health of our little community by moving in a more 
public direction.

In my 'perfect' world, this forum would be a front end to Mailman.
http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/index.html
 
You could participate via email the same as you do now.  The difference 
would be that we may have 4 or 5 lists so you could subscribe to all or 
none.  Email would be an option as would be just visiting the forum.

Example forum topics:
Telescope making
Ray Tracing
Swap and Shop

The general categories you could subscribe to would be broad in nature 
but could be broken down further on the forums.

Telescope Making
    Mirror Making
    Mounts
        Dob
        Equatorial
        Poncet
    Electronics

If there is enough interest we could set up a temporary list to knock 
this around.  I found this list of currently available forum software:
http://www.thinkofit.com/webconf/forumsoft.htm

I haven't heard from Micheal or seen him on IM lately so I don't know 
his feelings at this point.  Remember, this is not a replacement for the 
list, just an extension. 

Ken Lowther
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