It's not just an issue of narrow-minded corporate management on
theoretical remote systems. Please bear in mind that we are hosted, for
free, by a state-run, tax-supported institution. For better or ill,
UARK has a long-standing policy about not using their infrastructure for
that type of traffic. It happens rarely enough that the occasional
"trivial, though potentially conspicuous" breach of protocol hasn't
caused us any grief. I am, understandably, motivated to ensure that it
does not become a point of pain for our gracious hosts.
I don't pretend to understand why the rules are there, nor do I care to
engage in debate on the topic. It's UARK's hardware, their network, and
their rules. Silly-seeming policies at third-party organizations are my
favorite kind of problem: Problems for other people.
Admittedly, this isn't necessarily clear at present to "drive-by"
subscribers like the individual who posted the announcement. It's not
feasible to put the list on full moderation. I don't have the bandwidth
available to eyeball-inspect every single post and bounce the rare
exceptional case back to the sender.
However, here's what I *can* do: Another list hosted by U. Arkansas
(SAG-L -- Software AG products discussion) has a long-standing FAQ which
includes policy statements regarding this sort of posting. I'm
acquainted with the list owner, and will obtain his permission to grab a
copy of that FAQ as a starting template -- and then I'll file off the
serial numbers, strip out the stuff that's specific to ADABAS / NATURAL
/ etc, and adapt the rest for use on IBMVM. While I can't force anybody
to actually *read* it, LISTSERV provides a way to deliver an FAQ to all
new subscribers.
Interested parties are welcome to send me suggestions for VM-specific
FAQ items - but please bear in mind that much of the heavy lifting on
this matter is already addressed via http://www.vm.ibm.com, and it seems
pointless to duplicate the resources already available there.
-dan.
