FYI, the U.S. Post Office has a form which you can fill out which then
screens you from unsolicited junk (fourth class) mail.  I would think
the we have the technology to do this with Email.
 
I do not know who the multiple recipients to your note were, but if this
is to be a "cause celebre," let it be.  This end of internet is essentially
established and financed by NSF for educational purposes.  It is custom
not to open it to advertising.  I do not care about the commercial services.
I am free to join. Free to drop out.
 
I use this network for academic business.  I realize a case can be made
for advertising ONE small item and mentioning it's price. But then there
are publishers who have books that are absolutely vital.  I comment O'Reilly
for establishing its own lists where people who want commercial announcements
can go to get them.
 
I may have signed on the wrong list in the first place. I manage a very small
list with the help of a technically trained person.  If there is information
of a technical nature required, I defer to his judgment. My concern is with
policy of management, membership, rejection of obscenity, the "agent
provocateur." I did not see much of this covered.
 
So I am now out of the issue as far as you folks are concerned.  On the
other hand, the issue remains and eventually it will have to be dealt with
on a mass basis, not on a basis of exceptional situations like this one,
but for the whole internet, for everyone.  And believe me, the commercial
services, phone and cable companies, and other commercial interests are
waiting to take over the band width.
 
Your problem.  You don't even want to hear about it do you?
 
And I would have dropped the issue but so many of you saw fit to comment
on my sanity, parentage, loyalty to my country, and qualifications for
survival as a human, I felt honor bound to my fellow non-technical folks
who actually use these systems, to say something in reply.
 
Good luck. Enjoy. Bless you in your endeavors.
 
 
[log in to unmask]
Gerald M. Phillips (Professor Emeritus), Speech Communication
Trade and Applied Books Editor, Hampton Press
Editor, IPCT: An Electronic Journal for the 21st Century
ISSN 1064-4326.  Send submissions to GMP3 at PSUVM.PSU.EDU
Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802
Manuscripts are being accepted for the 1994 volumes.