From: werner@cs.utexas.edu (Werner Uhrig)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.announce,comp.binaries.mac
Subject: MacGifts forwarding service to be discontinued (was Re: Dropper...)
Date: 13 Apr 1992 16:54:51 -0500
Organization: CS Dept, University of Texas at Austin
Expires: +3 months
NNTP-Posting-Host: dimebox.cs.utexas.edu
Summary: burn-out imminent


	official support for file submissions to

		MacGIFTS@rascal.ics.utexas.edu

	will go away by the end of this month (April 1992).

	I have no idea how wide-spread the knowledge about MACGIFTS
	has become (given that I did not actively advertise it),
	but the majority of all articles you have seen posted in
	comp.binaries.mac during recent months (and less so, for years)
	had reached the moderator forwarded first manually, later
	semi-automatically via RASCAL.

	I had originally set it up as an alternative to help the
	USEnetters who tried to get files to the moderator and
	either encountered a black hole (and wondered why it didn't
	get posted) or a bouncing gateway (due to routing problems
	or message size-limitations).  Later I made it a hub so that
	a file could be sent to one exploder-address (especially
	important for expensive UUCP-links) from where it would
	reach all the major archives sites on Internet and Bitnet
	automatically...
	(SUMEX, SIMTEL20, UMICH, ETHZ, MICROLIB, others...)
	...which was especially desirable as the files became
	available amost immediately at most sites, whereas with
	comp.binaries.mac, one never knew (if it was in a queue
	to be posted, or lost in a black hole)

	I am under the impression (though have not been given any
	notification to the effect) that lately people have not
	experienced problems when trying to submit files to the
	moderator of comp.binaries.mac either when doing this by
	posting (and relying on the news-software to "do the right
	thing" ) or by  email to the moderator's published email
	address:
			MACINTOSH@DHW68K.CTS.COM
	or
			dhw68k!bytebug@ics.uci.edu

	(but I may be wrong and the problem may still exist)


	there is a chance that the address macgifts@rascal.ics.utexas.edu
	will continue to exist (and forward messages) still for a long
	time; but I have noone lined up to respond to questions or
	to provide support otherwise...

	what's the reason (you ask)?  I'm tired off it, no longer
	enjoy it, am losing interest in the Macintosh, have other
	interests....

	I enjoyed all the collaboration received from people around
	the globe, am somewhat sad to miss out on the people I will
	not get to meet on the net this way any more, but look forward
	to not leaving a gaping hole but rather an opportunity for
	someone else to feel needed and appreciated for providing
	a public service.

	Thanks to all who made MACGIFTS a success.  I'll be around
	on the net other wise a while longer...

				Cheers,		---Werner

ps: special thanks to those who did not (yet) complain to me over the
    absence of a descriptive text in the posting of Dropper and Stripper;
    I'd like to think that it is due to the fact that they know how
    hard I often tried to get such descriptions included; in this
    particular case, I had noone to ask, and trusted that the moderator
    would figure out what the files are about and add a few explaining
    words.  Routinely, I never even look at Macintosh files anymore
    myself, whereas I'd like to think that Roger checks them out
    for viruses and usability, before posting them...
-- 
  --(werner@rascal.ics.utexas.edu)--*OR*--(...!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!werner)--
Definition of Foreign Aid:
	"The transfer of money from poor people in rich countries
	to rich people in poor countries"  ---Unknown, probably dead...