ml> hunh? message base purging via number of days old a message is carries
ml> some limitations??
 RN>  
ml> the only "limitation" i know of in this arena is if the
"days old" count
ml> is done on the message's "write date" or "arrival
date"... it can make a
ml> large difference ;)
 RN>  
 RN> But can the utility you're using save some message areas to a text
 RN> file?

i'm not using a utility to archive my echomail message bases... i did
mention a utility that i wrote called NMPurge that does do text file
archiving of netmail messages in SDM (aka *.MSG) format, though...

 RN> I suppose you could do that with diskette backups or CD or
 RN> DVD backups, but that would require intervention on your part.  All
 RN> message areas being archived have the header and path information
 RN> saved as well.  But I don't let the computer do everything because
 RN> I don't want to cease being relevant.
 RN>  

:)  someone's gotta pay for the power it consumes as well as generating
traffic for it to move around ;)

ml> neither here nor there in the context of the conversation ;) 
ml> however, i
ml> can say that the users who do visit my site can find messages, albeit
ml> some months old, and respond to them which may stir up further traffic ;)
 RN>  
 RN> There are always two schools of thought on any given subject. 
 RN> There was a user who replied to some of my messages in the MOVIES
 RN> echo after three months had gone by.  I asked the user why and
 RN> never received a response.  

if your message made it back to the system they were on and if that system
is still up and operating and if that system doesn't loose the messages for
some reason and if the user was too embarassed by your reply, then said
user may be back in another few months to carry on the conversation :P ;)

ml> understood... this is also why i carry messages for at least a year 
ml> in my
ml> bases... of course, i always, as does everyone else, have the ability to
ml> save a message to a text file for historical purposes... i've just never
ml> thought of this as an "active archive" option...
 RN>  
 RN> What happens after a year?

that depends... generally speaking, they are purged into the bitbucket and
go the way of the doodoo bird... unless i have locked them to retain them
or otherwise save them via some means...

 RN> As I stated previously, D'Bridge has always had the option of 
 RN> saving messages during a purge to text files.
 RN>  

what happens when your text file gets too big?

ml> from a programing standpoint, it would seem to be just as easy to 
ml> create
ml> an archivial message base and simply move the messages there (much like
ml> importing them during tossing)... to me, it seems like the search
ml> capabilities of message tools work much better than searching thru a text
ml> file ;)
 RN>  
 RN> And of course you'd want this done automagically, right?  (-: 
 RN> D'Bridge's editor has a text search function.
 RN>  

can dB's editor open and fully handle a text file that is 100K in size?
what about 100Meg? 1Gig??

ml> FWIW: DB is the only mailer that i've ever heard of that has an 
ml> actual
ml> "archiving" option in it... then again, i've only ever
looked at less
ml> than 5 mailers... but "archiving to a text file" is and
has always been
ml> an option for everyone... just not in an "automated
archiving" way ;)
 RN>  
 RN> I've used the same number of mailers since 1984 and the others
 RN> don't come close to D'Bridge.

hehe, i didn't say that i had /used/ those mailers... i said that i had
*looked* at them... for my main system, that is... one of my internal point
setups has run three different mailers but they were all of the same family
and each derived from the one before except for the first one which was
_the_ first one of that family... i never really did like any of them but
they perform the mailer task adequately enough for mail transfers to take
place...

 RN> I'm not even going to mention GateKeeper when I used AdeptXBBS.  
 RN> No matter what I tried, I was left feeling something was missing, 
 RN> which is why I stuck with D'Bridge since I became a node.  It has 
 RN> been so long, I can't recall if the other mailers I used had an 
 RN> auto-add feature for new message areas, but then again, not 
 RN> everybody uses their mailers to toss mail.  D'Bridge is "macht 
 RN> schnell."

how's it do with DOOM? can it host a networked version for multiplayer
battling? :) :P

)\/(ark