[repec-help] stale archive requests

[Christopher Baum]

One of the most useful tasks that volunteers might be able to perform  
for RePEc is to communicate with those who have requested archives and  
for whatever reason have not set them up. We currently have 171  
archive codes that have been assigned but not yet implemented. Those  
requested more than 90 days ago are sent a reminder message every  
month. Those more than 18 months old are moved to an inactive status  
(currently 148 codes in that limbo) while a sizable number of the 171  
requests are quite old (>12 months, >15 months...)

I would hope that some volunteers would come forward and take a list  
of, say, 5 of the oldest outstanding codes and try to contact the  
person who requested it. This could result in determining that
(1) the person is no longer at that institution (which often happens),  
or is no longer involved with the process (in which case we could  
cancel the request), or
(2) there are technical/security issues preventing them from following  
the step-by-step instructions for either HTTP or FTP access (in which  
case we could now direct them to the RePEc Input Service), or
(3) they have no idea how to follow the SbS instructions (e.g., they  
do not know how to create ASCII text files, or subdirectories on a web  
server) and need some handholding.

It would be very useful to try to clear some of these old cases and  
help people get started with RePEc. For whatever reason many find the  
step-by-step instructions inscrutable, so walking some would-be  
maintainers through the steps may be the only way to help them figure  
out what they need to do.

If you would like to try this out with several archives from our list  
of 'vintage' archives, please let me know.

Thanks
Kit Baum

Research Papers in Economics (RePEc)
http://repec.org