Hi Everyone, I am still the Message Board administrator for Hampden County. Message Boards and Lists are sometimes administrated by the same people, sometimes they are not. I gave up the list, not the boards. Now, in terms of the issues with the amusement parks, as a former Holyoker I have lots of fond memories of Mountain Park also so I know where you all are coming from, I really do. I am actually on the fence about the value of the amusement park topic especially in terms of what I have seen in the actual responses posted to the list via both methods (board and list). Ultimately I have to agree with Cynthia that if the amusement park discussion isn't specifically geared toward history/genealogy it is indeed off topic. Before I began composing this e-mail I looked through the list of responses -- as each one of you may wish to do -- and really it is a long list of mostly short messages naming parks, with lots of repetition. I think Cynthia absolutely made the right call here. Obviously many of us are of an age where the amusement park was an integral park of our youth! What I would consider to be on-topic posts would be a detailed history of a park (how and when it started, who owned it, etc.); ancestors who may have been an owner, employee, etc. I would even accept narratives that related to family history: specific stories and experiences that serve the following purposes 1) give a sense of what the experience of the park was like to both the employee and the patron, 2) how it impacted the social, financial and cultural elements of the city/town in which it resides and 3) gives an occupational description of specific jobs or working conditions, salaries, etc. But above all we must remember this is a genealogy list. However -- and this is the important part -- I am no longer this administrator for this list. Now in terms of the Message Board being gatewayed to the list, if Cynthia would like it removed I will do so at her request. I personally feel that linking the two helps prohibit repetition and also from the search standpoint, allows one to conduct a search through the list knowing you will also get the gatewayed messages on the board. Most of the time we all get along just fine. But I think if people take a moment to go through the amusement park related posts from this past week, the call by Cynthia to cease the thread was quite appropriate. By the way, there are a lot of amusement park links out there! And please remember, when someone posts you always have the option to send a private response to that person and can continue the the discussion that way. Laurel O'Donnell