I know I'm new to the list, but I have a couple observations and an
offer, if it's necessary.

First, it looks to me like the original message that flared this thread
up was from Jul 20. A couple weeks later, Jim Arnott posted that gerry
was moving. In the absence of any official posting, it looks to me like
the list owners have gotten the problem of hosting solved, at least for
the short term.

So, my guess is that we don't need to worry, at least for now. Although
I'd guess that whoever is hosting gerry now would not turn down any
offers of donations towards cost.

Which brings me to my offer, which I'm glad to make and leave on the
table until/if it's needed.

I have a machine with a permanent connection that I do some basic web
and mail hosting on. As long as we're not talking about more than 5000
or so subscribers, I'd be glad to host the list there. The only
immediate problems I see with that are:

1. I'm virtually unknown. I just found the list earlier this week, and
although I've read the archives for July and August as well as older
stuff relevant to things I'm doing, I'm still a list newbie. I wouldn't
entrust my mailing list to someone I had just met, and don't expect the
list owners to either. :)

2. It'd be hosting on a shared server, not just space and a connection
for the current gerry machine. May be a problem, may not be a problem.

3. The machine runs OpenBSD, not windows. We'd have to export the list
archive and switch to different mailing list software. Again, may be a
problem and may not be. Depends on how tied to the current interface
everyone is.

At any rate, the offer is there, but it looks to me like things have
already been worked out amongst the list owners.

To bring the conversation back around to the vans, not the list, I'm
currently working on building an assembly to replace the tail light
cluster using LEDs instead of incandescents. Anyone have any thoughts
on this, one way or the other?

(And to avoid the one I know I'm going to get, "Why?")

Why not? Seriously though, they come on faster, can be brighter, use
less power, and just plain look nicer (IMO). Sure, I could just buy the
superbright tail lights, but this is a lot more fun. :)

-Zach

On Aug 11, 2004, at 11:05 PM, Michael S. Nichols wrote:

> Hello fellow listers,
>
> I want to begin by thanking all those IT savvy folks that have made
> this
> list possible.  This is something I could never do, even though I can,
> thanks to the list,  keep my 2 1981 air cooled Vanagons up and running
>  with
> little if any repair shop help.  I do wonder though about all the
> commercial
> vendors who benefit financially  from this list.  Hey,free advertising
> is
> great--- that's the American way.  But it is also the American way
> that no
> one rides for free.  For example, I sell about $100.00 worth of used
> Vanagon
> spare parts on this list a year.  I should pay something, I would
> think, for
> the benefit of being able to do this. How much, perhaps, and how?