> On Sun, 29 Jan 1996, Tom Salsberg wrote:

> > A veg-raw newsgroup would be nice too.

> I think there is one that's not very active that has the keyword
> "vitality-for-life" or something like that in it. Definitely the
> word "vitality". I think it likely to be alt.food.vitality-4-life but am
> not sure. Do a search for it and it'll probably come up. Then post post post!

I looked in the usenet and found a group called
"alt.org.vitality-4-life".  There weren't any posts in it.  Does anyone
know anything about the group?  Whats it about?  Is anyone administering
it or is it just a regular anarchic alt newsgroup?  Would posts about raw
foods be acceptable there?

The amount of posts that I have been getting is much higher than I had
expected.  With the old mailing list we were lucky to get a handful of
posts a week.  Now my mailbox is inundated every night.  There are a
number of different threads that seem to be going on.  I am finding it
hard to follow all of them.  I imagine others are too.

It seems to me that this level of posts would be better in a usenet group
than in a mailing list.  The usenet software would automatically group the
posts by topic.  Thread are retained in order.  You can read the posts at
your leasure, following the threads that interest you.

The thing is I have no idea how to go about setting up a newsgroup.  If
we could use the above newsgroup that would make life much simpler.

Another option would be to just start posting to the vegetarian and vegan
newsgroups but identifying the posts as raw foods in the subject header.
If the level of posts warranted it a raw foods sub-group could be
created.  This would be a more appropriate place for a newsgroup than the
alt.org.vitality-4-life location above.

I would like to look into starting a usenet group but don't have the time
with the amount of time I'm putting into this list.  Perhaps other people
on the list are more knowledgeable in this area.

For people unfamiliar with the usenet, unmoderated groups also have their
downsides.  They can easily convert into mindless never-ending
flamewars.  A handful of obnoxious posters can chase out serious
posters.  Its really up to the users to maintain the group.

So to me it seems the best thing is to have both a moderated and an
unmoderated venue for discussion.  The unmoderated venue can handle the
large amounts of posts that can be just too voluminous for anyone to
screen.  The moderated venue can be a back up if the unmoderated venue
gets out of hand.

So the bottom line is that I just don't have the time to continue
responding to and/or forwarding everything that comes in.  I have other
commitments that demand my time.

In reviving the mailing list I wanted to give raw foodists a chance to
communicate.  There are really so few of us that the internet seems
the best way to communicate.  But I can't do it myself.  So what I will
do is continue to forward some of the posts that come in.  Preference
will be given to any posts responding to this message, especially ones
with suggestions and solutions.  As things slow down I will send out the
backlog.  Mailings that seem to be back and forth discussions between two
people would be better emailed between just the two participants.

If a newsgroup gets off the ground I will continue to maintain this
mailing list.  However I will use more selective judgement as to what
gets sent out and mailings may not be as timely.

Also someone emailed me about a raw foods web page he was setting up.  If
he emails me again with the web page address that will also be sent out.
Any suggestions for the page should be sent directly to him.

Michael