Subject: Re: Propose new group: alt.living.tightwad

From: Penny Ward <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 1995 09:21:38 -0500

On Sun, 12 Mar 1995, David O. Laro wrote:

> I'd love to get more info about Maxlife before I consider subscribing.
> I've had to drop one list already because of excessive traffic, you
> know, 150 posts or so per day and you get behind pretty fast.

If you don't want a high-traffic list, you don't want Maxlife.  While
we're not up to 150 posts a day, it still can fill up your mailbox pretty
fast.  Many people opt to subscribe under the digest format. 

> How old is the list?  

It's a little over 2 years old.

> What is the tone of the list (flame-happy? Never?)

It's not "flame-happy," but we've had our bad spells...  People are 
talking about lifestyle issues, so ideologies sometimes clash.

> Where do the bulk of subscribers reside (US, Canada, Uganda, or S America?)

We have about 425 subscribers, mostly in the U.S.

> Who owns the list and from where?

It's owned and originated by Sharon Gordon, at the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro.  However, it's now *run* from UNC-Chapel Hill,
since UNC-G's server couldn't handle the volume of mail.  I handle list
maintenance in terms of subscriptions, questions, etc. since I'm here at
UNC-CH. 

> And whatever else you can tell me about it.

You can get a copy of our info file by sending a message to:
    [email-masked]
The message should say:
     info maxlife

Penny Ward
[email-masked]

---

From: [email-masked] (Sherry Bailey)
Date: 14 Mar 1995 17:30:41 GMT

I will say this -- I subscribed to MAXLIFE and I'm disappointed.  I'm getting
digests and I have gotten I think five since Saturday (That's less than three
full days). They are more chatty than newsgroups are, and the topics so far
are NOT anything to do with frugal living.  I don't have time for busy
listservs that fill up my mailbox (and server) with junk I'm not interested in
-- newsgroups I can go to when I have time and subject-search to find only the
topics I want to bother with. Digests and e-mail FORCE you to scan EVERYTHING
or nothing. I'm dumping the list -- it's not for me.

I sympathize with the people who think listservs are a way to test an idea
before launching a new group, but when in such a short time so many people
enthusiastically endorse an idea, *I* think that in itself is a test, and I
wonder if those who like the e-mail delivery have other agendas, like monetary
issues.  (OK for them, irrelevant to me.)

I think a proposal for a misc.frugal newsgroup would be sensible, and I'd
subscribe. (And plead that people stay on-topic and give good subject lines!)

Sherry