Upcoming PaleoNet Changes

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In response to Stefan's question about the problem of unsubscription
messages being posted to the list, I'll check into this. The routing of
these messages to everyone is obviously annoying, but comes from an
apparent lack of familiarity with listservers. None of the other lists of
which I am a member accepts unsubscriptions at the list's distribution
address. That's not to say such a thing can't be done, only that it is far
more "intuitive" (from a programming standpoint) to route listserver
commands to a different address. Still, I want PaleoNet to be as easy as
possible to use, get onto, and off of.

BTW I've noticed that the unsubscriptions that are posted to the list
primarily originate from corporate and aol addresses. I interpret these to
be unsubscriptions by people interested in paleontology, but not interested
in the primarily academic and industry-related material that makes up the
bulk of PaleoNet's day-to-day activity. Among academic, museum, and
industry addresses PaleoNet subscribership is relatively constant (at about
700 addresses) with a slight upward drift.

Since we are talking about the listserver, I'll also go ahead and announce
that PaleoNet will be moving from the NHM to the Berkeley Museum of
Paleontology in the next week or so. This move will have many advantages
for PaleoNet users (e.g., a more stable network, better listserver
software, more automated features, a change back to a list-directed reply
default, an additional (US) site for the PaleoNet Pages) and for myself
(less need to fiddle with PaleoNet behind the scenes). Jere Lipps' staff
and I will be doing everything possible to make sure that the transfer is
transparent to PaleoNet subscribers. I'll post additional information about
the transfer as plans become finalized. Since we'll be reconfiguring
PaleoNet for the Berkeley network, this will provide an excellent
opportunity to evaluate suggestions like Stefan's. If you have any changes
you would like to see incorporated into PaleoNet, please send them to me.


Norm MacLeod



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Norman MacLeod
Senior Scientific Officer
N.MacLeod@nhm.ac.uk (Internet)
N.MacLeod@uk.ac.nhm (Janet)

Address: Dept. of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum,
         Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD

Office Phone: 0171-938-9006
Dept. FAX:  0171-938-9277
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