The level of traffic on austin.announce is very light.  Some people
look at that and think since the group is so small, nobody reads it.
They think it might be better to use a big group, such as austin.general,
for their announcements.

In fact, the opposite is true.  austin.announce is easy to read -- so
people read it!  Your announcement doesn't have to fight for attention
among 120 other messages complaining about drivers on Mo-Pac or the
lunkheads in City Hall.  When you use austin.announce, you do not have
to run a gauntlet of killfiles to get your announcement seen.

OK, you want me to prove it?  Here is an unsolicited testimonial
(gawd...I feel like a TV infomercial) from one person who published
a conference announcement in austin.announce.  The announcement was
posted on a Saturday morning.  The moderator received a message first
thing Monday that said:

    > [This] group is really effective!!!  I was inundated with
    > registrants all weekend.

So there you have it.