Sorry for posting another administrative message.  (If you want to sign
off this list, please see the instructions at the end of this message.)

Yesterday I announced that messages and commands for the Mark Twain
Forum should henceforth be addressed without the "VM1." portion of the
node name.  The computer people at York U, the host of our list, had led
me to believe that the change to the new node was already complete, but
it looks now as if the change will be made over the weekend, and will
not be completed until Monday.  Until then, I suggest you continue to
use the usual addresses.  When the change appears to have been
completed, I'll post another message to inform you.

At first I had the impression that this change was another instance of
the "change for its own sake" philosophy that computer people espouse,
but I'm pleased to report that the LISTSERV that will be hosting TWAIN-L
on the new node has been upgraded to version 1.8b.  In case you're
unfamiliar with LISTSERV technology, this change is, thankfully, an
improvement over the old system.

The new software has several listowner functions that will make running
the list easier for me.  Also, apparently it has a routine that checks
all messages and rejects the ones that seem to be spams, i.e., GET RICH
QUICK! messages, an example of which was posted here a few days ago.  I
don't know how effective the system is, but we'll find out soon.

One of the most exciting changes for subscribers, though, is that
digests will be supported.  This means that, instead of getting
individual Forum messages as they're posted, you can set your
subscription so that you receive a digest version of the list.  In this
format, all of the Forum postings are consolidated into a single
message, with a summary by subject at the top, and sent to you according
to a schedule.

The digest option is really handy for subscribers who are on commercial
accounts, and must pay for each message received.  It's also a desirable
feature for people who just get too much e-mail, from the Forum and from
elsewhere.  In my case, for example, the digests option lets me
subscribe to several lists (e.g., LINGUIST, and AMLIT-L) that often have
more than a dozen messages per day.  I want to subscribe to several
lists, but couldn't keep up with the busy ones if each posting arrived
in my account as an individual message.  Rather, I can just get a single
message per day from each list, scan the subject summary, and jump
directly to the messages that interest me.

The only problem is that individual subscribers can't set the frequency
of digests.  Rather, I have to set the frequency for the whole list.
Then, when an individual subscriber issues the SET TWAIN-L DIGEST
command to LISTSERV, that subscriber will receive digests in the
frequency that was set for everybody.

At an average of one posting per day, the Forum isn't busy enough to
justify a daily digest.  My inclination is to offer a weekly digest,
mailed every Monday.  Monday seems like the best time to receive the
digest, since reading messages about Mark Twain is surely a good way to
start the week.  However, we can set the list to mail the digest on some
other day of the week.  And we also have the option of setting the list
to monthly digests (which would be too infrequent, in my opinion) or to
daily digests (which, as I said, would be too frequent to be useful).

I'd like to take a poll, then, to find out from people who want digests
(1) how often you would like them (daily, weekly, monthly); and (2) if
you want weekly digests, on what day of the week you'd like them.
Please send a message directly to me at <[log in to unmask]> (not to
TWAIN-L) indicating your preference; your message to me needn't be more
wordy than something like "weekly Monday".  Please send me your
preference only if you plan to make use of the digests option.  If you
want to continue hearing about Twain 24 hours a day, seven days a week--
as we've been doing since the Forum began--then you needn't vote, and
you won't have to issue any special commands to continue receiving Forum
postings in the usual way.

If you want to sign off TWAIN-L right now, just send a message to
<[log in to unmask]> with a blank subject and the following single
line in the body of your message:

SIGNOFF TWAIN-L

Please be careful to send your command to LISTSERV, not to TWAIN-L.

Thank you for your patience with these non-Twainian messages while the
Forum is changed to the new LISTSERV host.

Taylor Roberts <[log in to unmask]>
Coordinator, Mark Twain Forum