And if no one is doing this? Would somebody be maybe interested in starting? It would make these lists much more approachable. Maybe you?
No thanks. I've already received a half dozen suggestions that I should take this on. So I'd like to nip that idea in the bud. :) (That is always the response to any suggestion) I already do lists summaries for enough lists, it takes time, though its my experience that it gets easier with practice. On a list that I'm familiar with, and feel comfortable with the domain it is easy to quickly sift through the chafe: you know what represent insight, and what is a FAQ, and you know whom is likely to post interesting messages, and whom isn't, and you have the historical context for it all. On a medium traffic list (of which I would say Zope@zope is high traffic list) it takes between 2-4 hours a week, depending on the week, and whether I had been reading with an eye towards summary. I've also found Mailman's archives (in thread view) can be an amazingly useful resource for compiling summaries.
ChrisM is posting a bi-weekly Zope newsletter *when* he finds time. Sometimes, it contains a summary of the mailing list traffic.
So he said. I look forward to it. Amazing how everyone is always amazingly busy. In that way the open source community, reminds me of the activist community (which is where I get my other deluges of email from) thanks kellan -- "we reject kings, presidents and voting. we believe in rough consensus and running code." [david clark (MIT)] kellan@protest.net