<FLAME ON> Forgive me, but it's been a long day and I'm rather testy at the moment... Peter: Set policy for your own lists if you like, but the idea that list owners would agree on a policy for the "net" any more than subscribers to a single list would agree that policies set by the list owner are "correct" is beyond me. I agree with Geert: "I really don't know why we are discussing this any further." If you don't want anonymous posts on your list, then set SEND=PRIVATE and be done with it. It may not filter out every single one, but it should fail to post most. And it's never unreasonable for a list owner to say: You want to post here? Subscribe first! I've been a list owner for all of about 3 weeks now, and my welcome message includes the following paragraph: If you are concerned about your security or privacy, you can post a message anonymously. Send your message to the list owner, along with a note that says that you want the message posted anonymously. The list owner will strip the "From:" and "Received:" fields from your message, then post it to the list." To date, no one has taken me up on the offer. [But then, the list hasn't been around long enough yet... Eventually, someone will, due to the "potentially" sensitive nature of the list.] If you want your list to be totally "open," then you should expect the occasional anonymous post. Scrape the doody off your shoe, and move on! If anonymous posts are unacceptable to you as list owner, then take the list private. Keith R. Trimmer Head, Catalog Dept. University Libraries University of Southern California List owner: Gay-Libn@uscvm [log in to unmask]