Janean, You are by no means alone here. While I don't know if I have "Adult ADD" or not, I do know that my attention span for email is limited. I suspect most of us are the same. A query should be just that: a query. This means: one thing at a time. Not 100 things at a time. If one is posting new information, then make that clear too. And not 100 things at a time. Because if it isn't clearly written up front what one is talking about, and wanders off into umpteen other issues, it just goes to the delete file. (Read on) Keep each email separate and apart with one topic at a time. I say this so that posters will get the best results from a wide audience. Irrelevant information only distracts from what it is you are seeking to find answers to. Source information IS encouraged, but not when it disrupts the flow of the text., put it at the end of a paragraph (about one subject) or at the end of the entire email. On that topic, as Elizabeth Shown Mills says, any source citation is better than no source citation. Sometimes it can be figured out. Try to keep messages (at a time) to no more than three paragraphs. In my experience, this is the best method for using list serves like this to their fullest potential. I realize I have used more than three paragraphs in this message, against all the rules I learned in HIgh School English and my own admonishments. The internet is a different world, and we need to learn what works and what does not. Thinks look very different from your computer screen than from a printed version you read in your armchair. Craig On Apr 1, 2011, at 10:47 AM, Janean Ray wrote: > I know for me especially..... with Adult ADD, I get totally lost in too much > information. <snip> > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

It is not only too much information but also too little time....I had a wonderful example this past week or so....Craig is also on the list that I am referring to. I read but rarely comment on the "Research and writing about Virginia genealogy and family history." <[email protected]> mail list. It is a wonderful list. There was a thread going on that I wasn't deleting yet....but I wasn't reading either....(which means that eventually I'll delete on a day when I am doing housekeeping on my computer) about a lady named Katherine Banks. A URL was sent to read an article that was written in a GA newspaper for women's history day....none of that jumped out at me....about six messages later a lady posted the following: > Katherine was my 9th g g'mother by her daughter, Katherine Royall, her daughter, Katherine Perrin, her daughter, Catherine Farrar, her daughter Frances Barnett, her son John C Burmett, his son, Michaj Burnett, his daughter, Deliah Frances Burnett, her son, Thomas Jefferson Abbott, his son, Newton Thomas Abbott, his son, Edmond Thomas Abbott, then me. Nancy And that is all that she posted in her e-mail. I descend from a man named Perrin Farrar who lived in Lousia County, VA in the 1800's......SUDDENLY I was EXTREMELY interested in the posts.....and it looks as if I have some huge clues to look at that may take me back to Jamestown in the 1600's on a family line. I have known that there is a lot of information on the Farrar line and that it was interesting....but I just have never had the prod to get started on the line. Too busy in the Northern Neck and Orange/Culpeper/Louisa and the Revolution in NC, SC, Ga, and Va to spend time on it. If anyone wants the information on Katherine Banks, I'll be glad to send you the URL or article ....unless someone else on this list gets to it first. But the point that I am trying to make is that extra time trying to get other's attention by a well planned or SHORT e-mail is time well spent--just as Craig was saying . marsha moses PS Don't forget the subject line....which of the two subjects that are separated by an "or" in my subject line is more likely to get a response from a reader? , Craig Kilby wrote: > .... > > I do know that my attention span for email is limited. .... > Craig > >

Marsha, Yes, I remember the thread because I deleted all of them. You are RIGHT ON about subject lines. Remember, that is how rootsweb archives them. If you change the subject, change the subject line. Otherwise, all of your useful information will be hiding in cyberspace obscurity. Marsha, I will write to you off list about the FARRAR family. Craig On Apr 2, 2011, at 11:38 AM, marsha moses wrote: > But the point that I am trying to make is that extra time trying to get other's attention by a well planned or SHORT e-mail is time well spent--just as Craig was saying . marsha moses > > PS Don't forget the subject line....which of the two subjects that are separated by an "or" in my subject line is more likely to get a response from a reader?