On:   Fri, 2 Sep 1994 08:21:00,
Bob Rogers <[log in to unmask]> wrote, among other things:
 
> setting my options to "digest". Now I have one big message at the start
> of the day.
 
I suspect that whether or not having email messages arrive numerous times
daily is bothersome depends mostly on whether your email handler has
friendly presentation capabilities; i.e., a way to present each piece of
email so that you can easily sort and select which pieces you wish to examine
now, and which you wish to leave for later. Having a number of MUSEUM-L
messages bundled into a single package (piece of email) brings its own
problems; e.g., when you wish to respond to a particular message and can't
simply use the Respond command, having it insert the Subject line of that
particular message; or, not being able to save selected messages in the bundle
using your email's Save command on those messages only.
 
>  If there is to be a gateway, the newsgroup should be moderated.
 
Now, that would require lots of work on the moderator's part (and, we're
talking censorship here, not moderation; I'd rather do my own censoring).
 
> The level of discussion on 90% of the newsgroups is miles below
> that of nearly any mailing list
 
I simply do not believe this. Among other things, it implies that you've
read and evaluated over 4000 newsgroups and the equal number of LISTSERV's.
Regardless of that, my own experience, reading perhaps fifty newsgroups
and twenty or more LISTSERVs over the years, finds the quality of discussion
uneven on both, varying from group to group regardless of whether it's a
ng or a LS, varying from newness to maturing of the group, etc.
 
> - on newsgroups the signal gets lost in the noise (for an
example, look at sci.archaeology, which is almost
> exclusively devoted to one or two fringe topics, having very little "sci").
 
You know what they say: "One person's junk is another's antique." I think that
it is possible, over a short period of sampling, to find a high percentage of
messages in a ng or LS to be not of interest to one's own focus. But, the
stuff is usually of interest to another's. And, over the longer haul there's
usually something for everyone; if not, those groups generally languish.
 
Needless to say, I favor setting up the newsgroup, which as John C noted,
is _in parallel_ with the LISTSERV, with no constraints. After gaining
some experience with that arrangement, if things need adjusting, do it then
(after appropriate discussion, of course ;>) ).
Peter