John,
We want to discourage ANY use of the old mailing list. Just to be clear to anyone reading this, the "Mailing list" is the old BR list where you received everything in your Email. The BR Forum, on the other hand, is the web-based new forum at
http://brforum.ads.net that we are presently using (and trying to get everyone to migrate to). Some benefits of the new forum are:
messages are threaded
- the message history stays online
you can access it from anywhere you have an internet connection
it's public and available to non-members (not all sections though)
if you want to, you can set up an RSS feed so you can get those messages delivered to your Email to save on your own computer. Note: the RSS feed messages have a reply link that will send your response back to the forum, maintaining the message threading.
Message "threading" allows all of the messages and their replies to remain chained together so that there is no need to quote messages when you reply. It's easy to follow the conversation this way - all in one place. Nice.
The goal is to get everyone posting in the new forum. When we are confident that we have everybody (or most everybody) over there, I assume that the old mailing list will be closed. The only reason it is open now is that for those who have not joined the new forum, they have no way to find us otherwise.
We still have a few issues and some confusion about the relationship between the old mailing list and the new forum. Currently, copies of all new messages in the new forum are being sent to the old mailing list so that people who have not joined the new place can see them. And likewise, copies of anything posted to the old mailing list are being sent to the new forum to the "Mailing List Archive" section. Note that you have to be logged in to the new forum in order to see this section online. It's hidden unless you are member (and logged in). Most other sections are public and visible to guests. One of our problem is when a message is posted to the new forum and someone replies to it from the old mailing list. Please don't do this folks! It breaks the threading in the new forum because the reply will end up in the "Mailing list archive" section instead of connected to it's original message in the proper section. If you see a message in the old mailing list that you want to reply to, please go to the new forum (join if you haven't already) and then post the reply directly to the original message.
ARCHIVE OF THE OLD MAILING LIST
As far as the old mailing list and archiving...that seems to be a bit confusing for all involved. Sometimes messages are posted to the archive right away and other times, there seems to be a delay. I can't find any reason for this in the documentation. Sorry that I don't have an answer to that, but if we all post in the new forum, it won't be an issue.
RSS feeds are not related to what shows up in the old mailing list archive. RSS feeds are only for the new forum. But if someone posts a message to the old mailing list. your RSS feed WILL pick it up when that messages is duplicated to the new forum.
If everyone posts their messages in the new forum to begin with, AND all replies are posted there as well, there will be no issues. RSS feeds work well there, and the forum has all of the messages threaded in the sections.
Back to you John... As for permission to post or reply in the new forum mailing list archive section... can you tell me more? Could you see the message you wanted to reply to? Were you logged in? Did you receive a message that said you didn't have permission? More details, please. I'll try to help.
-- Susan
P.S. I removed the blurb on the forum page about the old mailing list being more reliable. This is not the case and we do NOT want more people joining over there. As far as RSS feed problems go, this issue may be on your end. I subscribe as well, and I haven't missed one message yet. It's NOT a problem of the new forum. That forum is working perfectly.