Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!bionet!UH.EDU!Davison
From: Davison@UH.EDU (Dan Davison)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: Re: And in the End...
Message-ID: <9102060354.AA18832@menudo.uh.edu>
Date: 6 Feb 91 03:54:37 GMT
References: <9102052058.AA01239@genbank.bio.net>
Sender: daemon@genbank.bio.net
Lines: 29

Dave Kristofferson notes:

> and I expect that substantial improvements
> will be forthcoming as a result of this recent disruption.  It is
> unfortunate, but usually it takes incidents like this to add fuel to
> calls for technological change.  

The most important of which is to get IRLEARN out of the loop as soon
as possible.  The problems caused there (probably because of Behind
Its Time NET/LISTSERV protocols) are NOT worth any nebulous benefits
of "automatic confusion" -- oh, sorry -- "automatic subscription".

Yes, Internet mailers will occasionally go into loops -- this weekend
was not bad at all, as far as mailer blowups go -- but as many have
noted here over the past couple of years, the "simplifying" via
IRLEARN has generally been more consistently problematic, with little
*visible* benefit.  The monthly "updates" proposed by Steve Clark
would have perhaps changed this perception. 

BIOSCI maintainers, it's NOT the occasional mess-up...it's the
consistent ones that cause the perception, rightly or wrongly, of
major problems.

dan
-- 
dr. dan davison/dept. of biochemical and biophysical sciences/univ. of
Houston/4800 Calhoun/Houston,TX 77054-5500/davison@uh.edu/DAVISON@UHOU
Disclaimer: As always, I speak only for myself, and, usually, only to
myself.