Electronic publishing

[James G. Smith]

This is how I hope/expect to interact with electronic publishing over the
usenet:

As I read thru the bionet.immunology.abstracts newsgroup, I come across one
that I would like the whole text from.  I type "r" (which allows me to email
a response to the poster of the current article).  I then mail the message

send mac

and then I continue looking through the abstracts, knowing that at some time
in the future I will receive the (HyperCard, I expect) Macintosh version of
that paper in email.

The various things that go on in the background (perhaps including the checking
to make sure I have a valid paid subscription to that server) I would be
unaware of.

How difficult would it be to set up a moderated newsgroup and server to do 
this?  I think the toughest part would be some sort of review process for
submitted papers.  

Finally, a comment on archiving.  What's the half life of information on CD-ROM,
or WORM drives?

*