On 12/18/2012 02:34 AM, Mark Benson wrote: The mailing list *is* intended for HECnet specific things, and of course there pops up tangental questions, but Hercules and other things are a little too far out, if you ask me. I have already tried to promote an alternative forum for the more wide ranging topics by starting the DECtec mailing list which is a wider overarching enthusiast list for DEC/Compaq/HP users. In spite of many people from this list also being also subscribed to DECtec it doesn't seem to have worked all that well. The list is mostly silent. The whole idea was prompted by a past period when the list got jammed with non-on-topic posts, a lot of which were interesting and valuable, but didn't concern HECnet. Well let's stir up some traffic on the DECtec list, then. I've CC'd this reply there. The only problem I see with this approach is that of membership. Off-topic conversations occur here because we have the "right" mix of people for certain conversations, and those people want those conversations to occur. (otherwise they wouldn't start them or participate in them) If we can urge everyone here who is interested in such conversations (hopefully a large percentage) to also subscribe to DECtec, and leave this mailing list for HECnet-operations-related discussion, would that not address the issue? -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA