I found this very scary article in "Lingua Franca" magazine, an academic type publication (July/Aug 1998 issue) - I won't type all of it, so I won't violate their copyright: Coming soon to a discussion list near you: advertising by e-mail. At least if the Sift people have their way. One of dozens of Stanford University spin-offs, the Silicon Valley firm is trying to make e-mail advertising legitimate. Sift matches advertisers like Wired magazine and Dell computers with the most desirable online discussion lists - the digital answer to direct mail. After attracting an advertiser to a list, Sift president Jeff Wilkins asks the list's moderator for permission to effectively rent the names of subscribers for a onetime fee - usually $50 for every one thousand subscribers. Then, he delivers the text-only ads to the e-mail boxes of each subscriber, often with an explanation from the list moderator. So far, more than one thousand lists have signed up with Sift for ads. <snip> [mostly computer type lists]. . Wilkins says that other kinds of discussion lists are starting to follow suit. Will subscribers to Chaucer-L be hearing about discount fares to Canterbury any time soon? <snip> . .it may be only a matter of time before e-mail advertising becomes a regular source of university revenue. After all, in the increasingly entrepreneurial world of academe, the ad money that Sift offers can go to a department, a lab - even into the list owner's pocket. "Academic institutions have historically been shielded from the economic realities of the world," says Wilkins. "That may be ending. . ." I sure hope nobody in the genealogical list world starts selling our names - I have worked very hard to take my name OFF mailing lists, and send stickers on everything I order saying "don't sell or rent my name and address". . . They never let up, do they? Francesca