At 09:46 PM 2/12/99 EST, you wrote: > > Dear List Members, > Although you have e-mailed me with your support for my idea (4 to one), the > people who would have to deal with this (list owners) have killed the idea. I > understand that it would have placed an extra burden on them and could > conceivably strain the list, thus hurting the purpose of the list. > I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about this. Common surnames > lists, like Smith or Harrison could get blasted. Maximizing the amount of > info seemed like a good thing to me and as one respondent wrote "this would > help break down the brickwalls". But I would rather kill this idea, rather > than hurt the lists. > Occasionally, some list owners will ask members for their "most wanted". > This also blasts lists with en masse mailings and this practice should also > be stopped (what's good for the goose is good for the gander). > In essence, let's do whatever the rootsweb will allow because it's survival > is more important than anything else. With this, I whole heartedly agree. > Thanks to all who listened and also those who responded. > "Hello again Cousins!" I am the List Adm for the HARPER Family Mail List and I this is my first communication in response to the suggested "Shotgun!" Perhaps I might be able to suggest a better alternative to this action which would have only a limited exposure to the HARPER Family Mail List and then become part of the HARPER Family Mail List Archives! That alternative would be utilization of the GenConnect HARPER Family Surname Boards also served by Rootsweb. Indexing for posts made to the GenConnect Surname Boards is made available through Surname Helper! http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/FamilyAssoc/Harper http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/FamilyAssoc/HarperBibl http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/FamilyAssoc/HarperBios http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/FamilyAssoc/HarperDeed http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/FamilyAssoc/HarperObits http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/FamilyAssoc/HarperPens http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/FamilyAssoc/HarperWill While I do not personally object to a well-thought out query that lists the information you have cited above, I do have qualified reservation for merely listing a series of surnames that are nothing more than a list of surnames. Should everyone put themselves in the position of someone searching for a particular surname within the HARPER Family Mail List Archives, and imagine the time that might be involved in retrieving archived posts in search of a series of surnames within previous HARPER Family Mail List posts going back to 1996, to possibly retrieving no further information for your all your effort than just finding a citation of the surnames for which you are searching. I am inclined to believe that we might all further the cause of genealogical research should we resolve to make all our posts as informative as possible when posting to the HARPER Family Mail List. I for one would very much like to see a post exemplifying a suggested listing format for this effort should you wish all 400+ subscribers to the HARPER Family Mail List to take part. I also do hope that all will exercise good judgement in realizing that should everyone begin doing this, and posting same within a very short time, quite a goodly number of our subscribers might choose to unsubscribe rather than be deluged with an onslaught of posts to the HARPER Family Mail List, especially so should no more meaningful information be included in most other than just a listing of surnames! We should also recognize that when replying to any such posts that are made to reply to the originator of the post, rather than replying to the HARPER Family Mail List and re quoting the entire original message each time in replying to the list. This is relevant to both HARPER Family Mail List subscribers and HARPER Family Mail Digest subscribers when replying to any specific message. Thank you for your attention, your patience, and cooperation in this matter. And thank you for your participation in the HARPER Family Mail List! TTYL Craig List Adm for HARPER-L and HARPER-D