Several people have expressed interest in taking on the FML
lock-stock-and-barrel, but since things have been so crazy of late,
I've not had enough time to reply properly.  So I'm taking this
last minute chance to throw a few ideas out.
 
It seems fairly clear that the vast majority want the FML to continue
as a mailing list.  While we could do a newsgroup too, and provide a
bidirectional gateway between the FML and a newsgroup, once we go
"national" ;-), the volume would probably go up so much that those
people who have difficulty keeping up now will unsubscribe.  So,
it seems best to keep the FML separate from a newsgroup, so that
the signal-to-noise ratio stays up (relatively speaking of course ;-).
 
The FML isn't being run in the "normal" listserv fashion.  There's
this spectacular piece of software out there (listserv) capable of
doing really amazing things, and I continue to insist that
subscriptions are handled here, and issues are constructed by
some of the most crufty software in existance - also on this machine.
All I use the listserv for is a mail reflector...
 
It seems to me that the FML should divorce itself from the lousy
manual-intensive junk I run, and go "properly" onto the listserv.
Once that happens, then the list owner's job is not much more
than examining bounces and determining when to cut off a broken
mail address.  Once this state is reached, then "owning" the list
is a simple job and you don't need to figure out how my software
works.
 
To this end, after I get back I will be transferring the processing
of the FML to the CUNY LISTSERV.  Namely, you send your requests
or your FML articles to CUNY, the listserv processes your requests,
and also assembles the daily FML issues.  I will also have to
update the mailing list FAQ...
 
This will be in place by issue 1000, and around that time the
FML issues will be generated by the listerv.
 
Once we achieve that stage, then we can discuss or vote or whatever
on who will be the "list owner".  Bill is willing to take on
"ownership" at least for the interim, but we should probably have some
sort of selection procdure.
 
[Posted in FML issue 0925]