Mart, I should have been clearer. Several users are "talking" back and forth with email that contains absolutely nothing useful for the other users. Let me give an example. User A sends a query about Isaac SMITH of VA in 1850. User B replies, "I have info on that person. Con- tact me and tell me what you need." User A replies, "I need to know who his second wife was, and the names of the children from that marriage." User B says, "I have the data in Word format. It is 78 pages long. Do you want it?" User A says, "Yes, please send it to me." User B sends back an email TO THE LIST with what is supposed to be an attachment, but the file data is included in the body of the email, making it almost 1 Mb in size. The first query was perfectly acceptable. The 5 emails that follow could have been sent to the users' personal email addresses, especially the last one. At RootsWeb attachments to email are forbidden, even if they are "true" attachments. An attachment that ends up as body text of an email causes the email to be larger than the acceptable size on the List. All of us are adult intelligent humans. A little brain exercise will tell us when our emails are beneficial to the entire group or to just one individual. Replies to an offer for lookups are NOT beneficial to the group. Answers to such requests are NOT beneficial to the group. I did not intend to stifle meaningful discourse, just tried to cut down on the "fluff". The intent of the List is that it is a place where contacts may be made; contacts which may, in most cases, be carried on better via private email. On specific surname Lists, yes, answers and follow up correspondence is encouraged; on a List such as this one with so many users, without some restrictions it would soon become so cluttered that it would lose its purpose. Hope this explains. SgtGeorge At 07:23 AM 9/7/98 +0100, mararm wrote: >I thought this list was for information. I for one look forward to seeing >the answers in case I could use them. Why do I have to just read >questions. Mart > >---------- >> From: SURNAME-QUERY List Owner <[email protected]> >> To: [email protected] >> Subject: PLEASE READ !!!!! IMPORTANT !!!!! FROM THE LISTOWNER >> Date: Monday, September 07, 1998 6:53 AM >> >> Once you have established correspondence with another user on this List, >> please send your email to that person privately, NOT back to the List. >If >> someone offers to do lookups, PLEASE send your requests to that person's >> personal email address. (You can always find it in the message header in >> the FROM: line.) >> >> If you are the person offering lookups, please DO NOT send those look-ups >> back to the List!!!!! >> >> Tonight, a user sent another user a GEDCOM file which was included in >> the body text of the email. It was almost 1 Mb in size !!!!! >Fortunately >> RootsWeb caught it and didn't deliver it to the List. Instead, I had to >wait >> 5 minutes for it to download to me since such errors are sent >automatically >> to the Listowner. >> >> Again, if your email narrowly applies only to one user, correspond with >> that user, and do not keep sending chit-chat email back to the List. >> >> Thanks, >> SgtGeorge >> Listowner >> >> >> ==== SURNAME-QUERY Mailing List ==== >> Reminder! Please remove as much of the Original Message as possible when >> replying to a List Posting. Include only that part of the original >message >> important to your reply. >> >> >> >> > > >==== SURNAME-QUERY Mailing List ==== >APPROPRIATE SUBJECT LINES: > In an effort to provide meaningful Subject: lines in posts to the > SURNAME-QUERY List, the Listowner asks you to try to adhere to the > following format: > > SURNAME, First MI;dates;places > > An example would look like this: > > BROWNING, Arthur C.;1795-1876;PA>VA>OH > > Users of this SURNAME-QUERY List do not download every day in order > to read each of the hundreds of posts. They are looking for certain > SURNAMES, on which they are doing research, or are willing to help > others with research of said SURNAMES. Therefore, if you do not > provide meaningful Subject: lines, chances are good that your posts > will be deleted without having been read. > > Also, the accepted standard in conducting genealogy research via > the Internet/Web is to spell all SURNAMES in CAPS. >