Subj : Re: your OLR home page
To   : Jim Hanoian
From : William McBrine
Date : Sat Jun 02 2001 09:05 pm

-=> Jim Hanoian wrote to William McBrine <=-

 JH> It is probably better to error on the side of inclusion than it
 JH> is exclusion.

I disagree. The list attempts to be, and as far as I know does a good job
of being, a comprehensive guide to offline BBS readers. It does not attempt
to be, nor is it, in any way comprehensive as regards point programs, much
less SMTP/POP3 clients. Such as are listed are essentially a haphazard,
random sample that are in the list mostly for historical reasons.

Someone who was looking for a QWK reader would be well served by using the
list. Someone who wanted point or Internet mail software would be poorly
served, and if anything, could be misled into thinking that there was
something special about the programs in this small sample, while missing
out on all the other programs available. Unless they're being shown as
_additional_ capabilities, along with BBS formats, the listing of "MP"  
capabilities are of no value to the former type of user; and the list as a
whole is of no value to the latter.

 JH> If they don't already know the mail doors that are available for
 JH> the software they choose to use, should they look to the list to find
 JH> out?

Sure; why not? But anyway, you're assuming that only sysops would want to
know what mail doors were available. Another category of interested parties
consists of the authors of offline readers. :-) To them, such a list says
"these are the programs that you have to interoperate with, so seek them
out and see that you do." In this case, specific BBS type isn't an issue.

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