While you receive the gratitude of the newgroup and improve the net.karma, you also become subject to its scrutiny. You need to be a responsible person and meet the obligations you set for yourself in a timely fashion, or people will promptly cut you down to size. It's a rewarding experience that I highly recommend. These trees take a long, long time to fruit, and people who are anxious to hear the material can be impatient. Certain people are irresponsible or have special circumstances which arise that prohibit them from doing their duty.
People move and lose email access, students go on vacation, etc.
This is NOT a perfect method for distributing tapes, but with a reasonable amount of damage-control it is the most effective. The most important thing to realize is the philosophy behind the Internet, newsgroups, and taping circles. There are unwritten rules and etiquette which can only be learned through experience. Be sincere and respect our ethics. These artists allow taping at their concerts because they believe and trust in the spirit of what we are doing.