There has been some discussion about converting PIPORG-L to a UseNet
newsgroup, or at least gatewaying it.  I have very strong opinions about
this.
 
I am strongly opposed to converting PIPORG-L to a UseNet newsgroup.
While I have access to newsgroups, many people do not, and we would lose
a large percentage of our current and future members by making such a
conversion.
 
I think that gatewaying PIPORG-L to a newsgroup is a good idea, but I
would recommend making it a one-way connection: from PIPORG-L to a
newsgroup, and NOT vice versa.  I have two reasons for this recommendation.
First, with a one-way connection we could gateway to an existing group
such as rec.music or rec.music.makers, without having to create a special
rec.music.organ.  Second, and more important, I feel that if we opened
a birectional gateway with an unmoderated newsgroup, our signal-to-noise
ratio would plummet, and there would be little we could do about it,
short of terminating the gateway or making the newsgroup moderated.
By "signal-to-noise" ratio I mean the ratio of people who think before
they type.  Over the past few years, all of the unmoderated UseNet newsgroups
have suffered from steadily decreasing SNR, due to the rapid increase in
the number of people with access to them.
 
 
=============================================================================
Edward L. Stauff, Nashua NH; [log in to unmask] *or* uunet!mv.com!gozer!stauff!ed
        "Specialization is for insects." -- Lazarus Long