From: justin@aix3090b.uky.edu (Justin P Sullivan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: mac.archive *SURVEY*
Summary: University of Michigan Macintosh Archives Survey
Keywords: mac archives umich survey
Date: 11 Nov 92 11:04:07 GMT
Article-I.D.: aix3090b.justin.721479847
Organization: University Of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences
X-Path: justin

(This was sent out on Tuesday's Mac Digest and it was posted to this group,
 but it didn't seem to go anywhere..)

Below is a little survey for mac.archive.umich.edu that we send out every so
often (whenever the mood strikes, actually). Please look at it and answer the
questions as tersely or verbosely as you feel is necessary and mail your
answers to *MYSELF ONLY* (not the rest of the group, please) at
justin@mik.uky.edu
(This file is also available as /mac/00help/survey.txt)

1. Do you enjoy your visits to mac.archive?

2. What kinds of files interest you the most?
   (such as games, utilities, extensions, communications, etc.)
		
3. How do you access our archives?
   a. Through a Mac-based FTP client (if so, please specify)
   b. Through basic command-line FTP
   c. Through AFS
   d. Through the BART mailserver
	
4. How frequently do you access mac.archive?
   a. Once a month
   b. Once a week
   c. Once a day
   d. What time is it now?

5. What other archives do you visit to find Macintosh stuff?

6. How can our directory structure be improved?
   (move /mac/system.extensions/font to /mac/fonts, for instance)

7. What is your opinion of our 'help desk?' (/mac/00help)

8. There have been a number of improvements, many of which have boosted
   performance considerably. Did you notice?

9. Do you use the BART mailserver? If so, how often? Do you have any
   suggestions on how to improve it (I know I do...)?

10. Do you subscribe to our Frequent FTP'ers mailing list?
    (mac-recent-request@mac.archive.umich.edu)

11. Do you ever run into any problems with the files you get from our archives?
    (corrupted files, infected files, etc.)

12. Anything you'd like to mention?
	


*******************************************************************************
Goings on at the University of Michigan Macintosh Software Repository

  Greetings.. We have been making many changes (and plan to make many more) to
the archives. The following may help you to help us serve you better. Please
read it in its entirety before commenting.

NEWS
***

  For U of M folks: We no longer support the PC2 archives on MTS. They are still
available of course, but they are several months old, and most of them are
out of date. Everything on the PC2 side will probably be deleted soon. The
reasons for this are fairly simple.. We have a mac.bin section that you can
mount on the desktop as an AppleShare volume! (see /mac/00help for details)

***	
mac.archive.umich.edu now runs off two machines:
shavenyak.css.itd.umich.edu [141.211.182.23] and
carpediem.ccs.itd.umich.edu [141.211.165.41]

  This is just to balance the load and deliver maximum throughput. They
both answer to mac.archive.umich.edu. You should not have noticed this
change in addresses (that is, it should work now as it always has in the past),
but if you must use an IP address, either of the above should work just fine.
In addition to using two machines, each of these now runs the wuarchive FTP
server. Hopefully, things are much speedier for you.

***
  For those that cannot access our archives through AFS or FTP, we offer an
ftp-by-mail service through our BART mailserver. This software (written
locally) is very easy to use... Just send a message to
mac@mac.archive.umich.edu with the word 'help' in the message body
(subjects are ignored).
  BART has some 'unique' features. BART automatically splits all outgoing files
into 32-line pieces. This is to ensure that the mail will get through to you,
because some systems (such as America Online) have limits as to the size of
messages they can receive. BART will not let you tell it how big you want the
pieces. BART does let you tell it which parts to send in case you miss any,
though.
  If a request is failing but you don't think it should, don't hesitate to
contact us (after you make sure you have the correct path and filename).
The most common reason for jobs to fail is that people are using old
00help/index.txt files. This file is updated almost daily.

***
  There is considerable debate within the group about the directory structure. 
In any case, it's important (for the benefit of all users) that the top-level 
/mac directory be kept compact enough to fit on the typical 22-line screen so 
it doesn't all go scrolling by for command-line FTP users. Any suggestions on
changing the directory structure are welcome.

***
  We have had a policy of NOT accepting images, sounds or QuickTime movies. 
There is a matter of the utility of our disk pool and the issue of liability.
Yes, Sumex archives these things without any trouble, but if the hammer falls,
it won't be on us. 

***
  A Word about submissions: You may either anonymously FTP your
graciously-accepted binhexed submissions into /mac/incoming, or mail it to
macgifts@mac.archive.umich.edu, which will 'echo' it out to sumex-aim and
other Macintosh FTP sites. We prefer Compact Pro 1.33 or StuffIt Lite/Deluxe
archives. The old StuffIt 1.5.1-compatible archives are still accepted, but it
really is in everyone's best interest to upgrade their copy of StuffIt (or
Compact Pro, if you're using anything earlier than 1.33).

***
Guess that about covers it for now.. :)
Again, please mail any questions or comments about the things mentioned in
this post to *ME* DIRECTLY at justin@mik.uky.edu.

If you are having problems, you can mail me or the group at 
comments@mac.archive.umich.edu. For new users, you can ask to be placed on
our 'Frequent FTPers List' by sending a message to 
mac-recent-request@mac.archive.umich.edu.
Please mail to me OR the group, not both (to avoid duplicated mail).

Thank you for your support!

(I highly recommend StarRunner in /mac/game/space if you want something
 to entertain you)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc