There are two things that can create this kind of problem: 1. If the logs are edited, for instance to remove junk messages, all the database index numbers will change and the numbers in the index mailed to the subscribers may no longer be valid. This is unfortunate, but for the time being the index code can do nothing about it, as the numbers come from the database system. 2. The index system knows exactly what messages were posted in the last period, the order in which they were posted, the subject, date and size of each message. This information is kept in a temporary file that human beings are unlikely to tamper with (the list owner does not have access to it at any rate). The database system on the other hand works on log files which can be edited manually by the list owner. To detect the separation between messages, it has to rely on the presence of a separator line followed by a valid header. If a user posts a message containing a separator line and another valid message header, the index system will see one long message and the database system will see two short ones. Again, this is a shortcoming of the database system that the index code cannot do anything about. In order to solve both problems, one needs message numbers and sizes inside the log file, with some sort of protection against human tampering. This means list owners would no longer be allowed to grab the whole file, edit it with their regular text editor, and send it back; they would need to use a special interface, something like "send me message 32812 and I'll send you an updated copy". People will scream bloody number unless clients are developed that make this process transparent to the user. It will be done eventually, but this is no 10-minutes fix. Once we have general-purpose PC clients to offer, it will become a lot easier to start thinking about it. Eric