Date: Sun, 5 Nov 1995 15:03:04 -0600

From: Natalie Maynor maynor[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]RA.MSSTATE.EDU

Subject: ADS-L Anniversary



It's hard to believe that ADS-L has been in existence almost four years

now. It seems more like a year or two ago that Bill Kretzschmar, Rafal

Konopka, and I stood there at a SAMLA reception talking about the

possibility of starting an e-mail list for ADS. But it really was four

years ago: November 1991.



In spite of occasional spam, misdirected listserv commands sent to the

list, and other such clutter, I'm still glad that we decided to make it

an open list. I personally hate moderated lists and would rather put up

with a little "noise" than with delayed clumps of mail that would result

from running it as a moderated list. As I think I mentioned before, we

decided to try it as an open list but without promoting it outside of the

ADS. Although ADS-L has somehow managed to find its way into various

lists of lists, I'm pleased and relieved that we haven't really had much

of a problem with net-cruisers tossing bricks or cans our way. I think

it's fine for people outside of ADS to subscribe and join the discussion

if they're really interested. If they become interested enough, they will

perhaps join ADS. I know of at least one person who did. Almost certainly

there are others.



I'm pleased that we still have a core of serious scholars contributing

to the list in spite of our occasional ventures into what is more or less

light chitchat. As the net grows and more newcomers arrive, I hope we

can maintain the informal yet sometimes serious ambience.



A reminder to those of you new to the list: Logs of back mail (except

for the first year) are available via anonymous ftp from ftp.msstate.edu

in pub/archives/ADS, via gopher from gopher.msstate.edu (#3 on first

menu, #1 on second), via the web from http://www.msstate.edu/Archives/ADS/.

--Natalie (maynor[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ra.msstate.edu)