Thanks to one and all for their thoughts on the possibility of connecting SCREEN-L to Usenet. Several useful comments were made and a number of points I hadn't anticipated were presented. (For a description of what Usenet is, see below.) Here's my understand of the group's consensus of this issue's pro's and con's: PRO: Displaying SCREEN-L messages on Usenet would be a helpful way to disseminate the group's discussions. Persons who are not (or cannot be) subscribed to SCREEN-L could browse our discussions without having to receive *every* message posted to SCREEN-L. CON: Because Usenet encourages browsers, it would be very likely that Usenet readers of b.l.screen-l would not be familiar with SCREEN-L's guidelines and its emphases. Consequently, Usenet contributors might post messages that are inappropriate for SCREEN-L. Several SCREEN-Litarians voiced the concern that a Usenet connection might flood SCREEN-L with these inappropriate messages. Taking these pro/con's into consideration, I'd suggest... THE USENET EXPERIMENT (in terror?) I've concocted a way to display SCREEN-L messages in a newsgroup *without* messages posted in the newsgroup being sent to SCREEN-L. Let's give this a try for, oh, the summer (when traffic is slow anyway) and then make a final decision in the fall about its usefulness. What I've done is written to the Usenet administration and requested bit.listserv.screen-l be established as a *moderated* newsgroup. This means that any posts to b.l.screen-l will be sent to me rather than to SCREEN-L, or even appearing in b.l.screen-l. That is, the *only* messages that will appear in b.l.screen-l will be the messages from SCREEN-L proper. When I receive a post from b.l.screen-l I will send the posting person a message inviting him/her to join SCREEN-L and explaining our policy against direct posting in b.l.screen-l. (I've figured out a way to automate this.) I think this ought to work and will enable SCREEN-L to extend its reach without endangering the focus of our discussions. And in August we'll assess this experiment and decide about its continuation. Thanks, everyone, for your input on this. --Jeremy (Usenet, An Explanation: Usenet is an enormous Internet "bulletin board" of thousands of topic areas called "newsgroups." The messages from SCREEN-L could pass through a "gateway" and appear in one of these newsgroups, which could be called bit.listserv.screen-l--abbreviated as b.l.screen-l. This would not change how regular SCREEN-L subscribers get their SCREEN-L mail.) ===================================================================== Jeremy Butler [log in to unmask] SCREEN-L Coordinator [log in to unmask] Telecommunication & Film Dept. * University of Alabama * Tuscaloosa =====================================================================