Greetings: ** DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE IN SUCH A WAY THAT IT GOES TO THE LIST ** There are two things going on regarding our list that I want you to know about. However, and this is important, this IS *NOT* AN INVITATION TO DISCUSS THESE ISSUES *ON* THE LIST. Failure to abide by this restriction may result in a stay in the Reject File for the list, which I hate doing to subscribers -- it's a pain, and easily avoided. The list is for genealogy. Please send me a *private* e-mail if you have questions or concerns. ** VIRUS ALERTS AND DISCUSSIONS ARE FORBIDDEN ON MY LISTS ** Try [email protected] First, there are two nasty and confusing viruses/malicious programs/whatevers making the rounds. If you have not updated your anti-virus software in October -- STOP -- DO IT NOW -- I'll still be here when you get back. The problem with these two bugs is that they are quite good at making it LOOK like a message came from a RootsWeb list. Be advised that no RootsWeb list can transmit a virus. Also, no RootsWeb list can transmit *any* kind of an attached file (although some e-mail clients display list Digests "as though" they were attached files -- they aren't). Lastly, the size of these infected messages runs over 50kb. I do not permit messages that large for any of my lists, so on many counts, if you get an infected message, it did not come through a RootsWeb mailing list. Another thing is that at least one of these products of idiocy tells you lies, about where the message is coming from and what it is about, so you cannot even say for sure that a list member is infected, either! For example, if John Doe gets an infected message that looks like Jane Roe posted it to the MOE-L list; not only did it not get on the MOE-L list, Jane didn't post it. Rather, Joe Bloe is an irresponsible person who disdains the use of anti-virus software. He has messages from the list (which may be copies taken from the archives, or may have been forwarded to him by someone else), messages from John, and messages from Jane, on his computer. The virus picks and chooses addresses and subject lines and then lies, lies, lies about them. ** REMEMBER, DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE IN SUCH A WAY THAT YOUR REPLY GOES TO THE LIST ** Secondly (and if you are not subscribed to MSN or Hotmail the rest of this message does not apply to you), a lot of RootsWeb messages are being bounced by MSN and/or Hotmail for reasons that puzzle the RW techs no end, not to mention legions of list admins. If you are being involuntarily unsubscribed from the list time after time, and you are an MSN or Hotmail user, may I suggest that you switch to some other provider? If this is not practical, then contact me *PRIVATELY* for some things to try -- but they don't work for some people, unfortunately. I apologize for the necessity of making these announcements. And now, back to dead ancestors. Darrell RootsWeb List Admin - 5 VT and 1 MA location lists Darrell A. Martin - 17 surnames lists [email protected] - 1 software list