Regarding BEE-L LOGS, someone posted to Allen, and Allen responded:
>
>> I am writing to you since as I understood you run the Bee-L
>> list. I wonder why can't I get to the archives of the group?
>> Is there any problem, or the archives are not available
>> anymore?
>
>Well, I don't actually run the list, but I do participate frequently
>as one of the 500 or so equal participants -- such as yourself.
>
>Aaron Morris <[log in to unmask]> is the brains behind this list
>and keeps it running.
>
 
Well, I can't really take the credit either.  My "pays the mortgage" job
is as the system administrator for the IBM system at the University at
Albany, which hosts BEE-L.  As I recall (and this is my recollection
which is most likely fiction based on threads of real fact) BEE-L was
originally started by the late Edward E. Southwick of SUNY Brockport
(both the University at Albany and SUNY Brockport are part of the
State University of New York system, and UA had better resources to host
the list than Brockport).  My association with BEE-L is merely an excuse
to pay close attention to this list to help me to be fluent in the
internals of LISTSERV.  LISTSERV is the software that makes LISTSERV
lists possible, was written by Eric Thomas and is supported and marketed
by Eric's company, LSOFT.  As far as being the "brains behind this list
and keeping it running", I am flattered, but can make no claim greater
than that of a janitor.  I am not even the list owner, just the system
administrator of the system on which BEE-L is hosted.
 
Now, this discussion started from references to BEE-L logs.  BEE-L logs
dating back to July 1989 are available from [log in to unmask]
via the LISTSERV command: GET BEE-L LOGyrmn (where yr is the year and
mn is the month).  Hence, to get the logs from July, 1989 one must send
a command to [log in to unmask] (please, please, please note
that the command goes to LISTSERV, not BEE-L) that reads:
                        GET BEE-L LOG8907
The LISTSERV command is the only line in the body of the mail (not the
"NAME" field or the "SUBJECT" field, both of which are optional as
far as LISTSERV is concerned).  If a user correctly sends the GET
command as described above, LISTSERV will reward that user by returning
to them the BEE-L log from July, 1989.  As the logs got bigger, I
configured LISTSERV to archive the logs weekly rather than monthly and
I split BEE-L LOGS on a weekly basis back through January 1996.  Thus,
to retrieve the BEE-L logs for the first week in January, 1996 the
command to [log in to unmask] would be:
                        GET BEE-L LOG9601A
To get the BEE-L log for the first week in January, 1995, the command to
[log in to unmask] would be:
                        GET BEE-L LOG9501
in which case LISTSERV will return the log for all of January, 1995
because that's how LISTSERV has the logs for any time prior to 1996.  To
see what is available from LISTSERV, send a command to
[log in to unmask] that reads:
                        INDEX BEE-L
LISTSERV will return to you an index of the BEE-L LOGS that are
available.
 
Now, the REAL challenge! in all this is determining what information is
available in what logs.  This is accomplished by using the higher level
database functions in LISTSERV, which I will not even attempt to
explain here.  Users who are interested in the database functions (of
which SEARCH is a subset) should send a command to:
>> at this point, everyone yells: [log in to unmask]
which reads:
                        GET LISTDB MEMO
and LISTSERV will return to the requestor "an introduction to the
LISTSERV database functions."
 
Finally, when queries were posted a month or two back about how used
the BEE-L LOGS were, responses seemed to indicate that the majority of
subscribers liked following current discussion, but few were interested
in the archives.  But for those who are interested, the information is
there and I hope this missal will be helpful to them.
 
Aaron Morris - Thinking I'll keep my day job.