Greetings, everyone: Long experience has confirmed that messages with subjects like, "Help!" are much more likely to be discarded, without being read, than messages with subjects like, "Andrew FORBES 1792-1905, Scot" (not that such a person existed, that I know of). In other words, "Help!" makes you **less** likely to get it. And that doesn't take into account the effect on the archives, which shows the subject but not the contents. Someone browsing the list of messages won't know if you are pleading for assistance in identifying a FORBES, or need help configuring your e-mail client. The list does not have a prescription for subject lines, but common sense should prevail. Darrell RootsWeb List Admin - 4 VT and 1 MA location lists Darrell A. Martin - 15 surnames lists, 1 Scottish clan list darrellm@sprynet.com - 1 genealogy software list