In a message dated 5/6/2007 7:05:45 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, tkemp@mindspring.com writes: As an owner/moderator of around 30 Yahoo lists, and member of over 100, I must say that everyone is making this hard on themselves. * Good grief! I own/moderate about 12 Yahoo Groups and I'm a member in about 20, and I thought that was frightening enough! I'm glad you told us that, tkemp; now I don't feel as out of control as I did......ha! No, you do NOT need a Yahoo profile to join the mailing list for any Yahoo Groups. You only need a Yahoo profile if you want access to all the extra's on the groups website such as files, pictures, etc. * I subscribed to my first Yahoo Group when they first came out, and had a terrible time registering successfully. I just wanted to add that (at least for me) I did get the profile but managed to get it without having to fill in all the personal information; the only data on mine is my user name which is shown anyway, and the sex which doesn't matter because I sign my posts Peggy. You could always experiment and see if you can do the same kind of "blank" profile and delete it if not. * A word about the Yahoo Groups' extras....to me, they are the main attraction to Yahoo Groups.....the photos, message archives, files, databases, links, members list, etc. are what make the Yahoo Groups so useful and enjoyable. In the JamestownVirginiaSettlers group, I just uploaded photos that were taken at last week's reenactment of the Jamestown settlers' first landing on the beach at Cape Henry. The Links section has all kinds of links to Jamestown-related sites, Rootsweb-VA sites, etc. and the Database section has a place where members can put the name of their Jamestown ancestor, year of arrival, and researcher name. So, I think all the home page functions for that Yahoo Group are what makes it interactive and a good resource for research. * Once I got successfully registered with Yahoo Groups, I was able to click on to "My Groups"....a very useful function that lists all the names of the Yahoo Groups that you are subscribed to, and the list includes the photo of the groups' home pages, if a cover photo has been put on them. When I am skimming down the list of all the groups I belong to, it's actually easier for me to find the groups by looking for their home page photo. I use AOL and my home page includes a tool bar where I have put an icon for Yahoo and I just click on to that to get to my Yahoo Groups "My Groups" page...it's so easy! Peggy ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.