In a message dated 9/5/98 12:37:27 PM Eastern Daylight Time, burnsba@earthlink.net writes: << Kevin: A lot of times a newcomer submits a query and does not know to put in dates or places. If you ask for this information you are only being polite. I see all of these complaints of yours as examples of just that.....people being friendly and exhibiting common courtesy.Nothing more. Cheers, Boice >> Dear Boice and Green-L listmembers: I'm afraid I have to disagree seriously. I have read most of the messages that support the "posting everything to the list" viewpoint, and think that I honestly summarize them as follows: They are saying that the great advantage in doing so is that someone will occasionally run across data or ideas on how to find data in a message that is not intended for them, but as a response to the query of another person. I don't happen to agree with that viewpoint, but that doesn't matter here, as long as other do it remains valid. Kelvin's point was that those messages that he cited did absolutely nothing to further the knowledge of persons or research technique. They contained no basic factual data that could possibly be identified by anyone other than the person to whom they were written. I have just reread them, and find no insights into research technique or identification of data sources either. Yet, in each case, the sender sent them to the list as a whole. Put yourself in the position of someone who looks at the archives of the messages from this list. Can you find one thing of value in any of his examples that will aid any researcher in pursuing their search for data about their ancestors? I can't. Yet those of us who express concern about this matter believe that these kind of non-informative messages make up a very significant part of what comes through from the various lists to which we subscribe. By way of personal example, tonight I had 237 messages to read when I signed on to get my e-mail - and that's since 5:00 AM. Perhaps it would be possible to compromise. I think that what Bill, Kelvin and others like me are asking is that listmembers take just a brief moment to reread what they have written, and ask themselves one basic question. "I know this is important to _______, but is it important to everybody on the Green-L list?" "Will anyone else even know what I am talking about?" If the answer is to these is "yes", then by all means, send it to us all. Then, if and when it is consciously decided that everyone does need to see my answer (and that's great - it's what we are all here for), then ask just ONE more question. "Does the subject heading that appears at the top of the message accurately reflect the content, now that I have responded or continued a pre-existing thread?" If so, fine. If not, PLEASE change the subject heading to reflect the content of the current message. I guess I've used up more than two cents worth, but I think this matter is important. I assume we do not want to drive anybody from the list, but that has to include the old, experienced researchers as well as the newer ones. Allan E. Green