It seems to me that if the majority of the group doesn't object to the individual in question offering her compiled lists on a CD then the majority rules. The list, newsgroup or society in general should not be controlled by one individual with a lot to say. Since it seems most of the respondents to this topic, except Benny, don't object then the will of the group should be honored, whether or not this has changed from the original intent. IMHO.

On Wed, 11 Sep 2002 04:21:16 +0000 (UTC), lfermi@comcast.net (Larry Fermi) wrote: >It seems to me that if the majority of the group doesn't object to the >individual in question offering her compiled lists on a CD then the majority >rules. The list, newsgroup or society in general should not be controlled by >one individual with a lot to say. > >Since it seems most of the respondents to this topic, except Benny, don't >object then the will of the group should be honored, whether or not this has >changed from the original intent. > >IMHO. > When this or any other newsgroup is started, the purpose, scope and charter are posted on the web and interested people are asked to vote for the creation of the new group. Enough affirmative comment and the group is allowed to begin. The admonition that advertiseing or "commercials" shall not be allowed here is crystal clear: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~socgen/Italian.htm#charter The naive notion that the charter can be changed if the majority whishes so is not majority rule. What happens a week or two down the road when the majority decides allowing advertising was a mistake and wishes to change the charter again? This is not majority rule, it's anarchy. There's an order and a structure here that was created for a purpose. There are numerous newsgroups that are expressly set up for advertising, their purpose being to keep all the others from becoming like the little neighborhood free "shopper" newspapers. If the kids in Italy who have been advertising here about, "I live in Italia, and I can find you ancestors cheap" and the lady selling the disks in question and everybody else wanting to advertise here would follow the rules, seek out the newsgroups where advertising is permitted and do it there, everything would be fine. Informed participants in this newsgroup could check the other newsgroups periodically, and everybody would be happy. Benny