RE: listserv is very slow

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the delay in responding... This got shunted down my priority list this week.

A couple comments for y'all:

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jared Still [mailto:jkstill_at_bcbso.com]
> Sent: Monday, July 31, 2000 8:10 AM
> To: Eric D. Pierce
> Cc: Charlie Mengler
> Subject: Re: listserv is very slow
>
> Eric,
>
> Thanks for the support.
>
> As it is right now, the list works, albeit sometimes not
> as quickly as we'd like.

And only because of the bandwidth I have available right now. As "connected" as San Diego is, I live in a very rural area, and getting high speed bandwidth has turned out to be a really challenge. I've been working to get a faster connection in here for a month now, but it's moving very slowly (mostly Pacific Bell's fault) and they've botched the job twice. I keep feeling like I'm on the cusp of getting it completed, but it eludes me. A very conservative estimate would put the installation finishing around October. That's still several months past what I originally promised Jared when he moved over here, but almost all of that timing is out of my control. The things that ARE in my control tend to be easy to resolve, fortunately.

Once the installation IS done, you should see a much snappier response time, new features, web access to archives, etc. If y'all can wait a bit longer, I fully believe it will be worth the wait. Unfortunately this topic keeps popping up here in the list -- mainly because of newbies who didn't read the initial messages -- and I trust that people can share the wealth that a "brighter future is just around tomorrow" (to borrow a phrase from Disneyland ;-).

> Charlie, I don't know how long you've been on this list, but
> there have been fewer problems at fatcity.com than where it was
> was previously.

Which is good news to hear, because that's what I strive for.

> It started out on MajorDomo, which is to put it politely, a
> somewhat capable list server than many, and very unreliable.
>
> MajorDumbo truncated the subscriber list on more than on occasion.
>
> It then moved to Lyris at the same ISP, and they were never
> able to make it work properly.
>
> In the end, there were no archives, which is not a good thing.

And here there ARE archives, and they will be up on the web in just a short while. Right now they're available via the E-mail ListGuru service.

> The admins were courteous and good to work with, but not as
> accessible, and not nearly as knowledgeable as Bruce Bergman,
> the admin at fatcity.com

Many thanks. :-)

> Bruce Bergman of fatcity.com is knowledgeable, accessible
> and easy to work with. He's always responsive when there
> are problems, which is not often.
>
> Never underestimate the value of having a good person to
> work with.

And while I DO run a small shop, keep in mind that I have been running Internet mailing lists since before 1985, so I have MANY years of experience, and was one of the first list providers in San Diego county. A lot of the bigger companies have employees who just don't know the domain and/or the problems which are unique and endemic to mailing lists. My policy has always been that you're not only getting my list software services, but also an educated provider who cares about his customers. It's hard to keep everyone happy, however.

> I don't want this list to be a full time, or even a part time
> job, and with fatcity.com, I spend very little time dealing
> with technical issues.
Received on Tue Aug 01 2000 - 17:00:20 CDT