You will find some people who prefer moderated lists and some who hate them. I'm in the latter category. Although I'm still a subscriber to a couple of moderated lists, I tend to delete 95% of the mail from those lists unread because I don't like reading delayed mail that arrives in spurts and is clumped together. (I realize that a moderated list doesn't have to involve clumped mail -- the moderator can distribute individual postings -- but usually it's clumped -- i.e., you might have to scroll through four messages you don't want to read in order to get to the fifth one in the clump.) Here's a personal example of a disadvantage of moderated lists: Right now I'm extremely busy and am also out of town, using a mushy-keyed laptop with slow modem and tying up somebody else's phone line. All I don't need right now is extra mail to contend with. It's pouring in, however, thanks to somebody's having forwarded a posting of mine from ADS-L to LINGUIST, out of context. The posting on LINGUIST has led people to send me private mail asking for more details about something that I have no details about. Naturally I sent a message to LINGUIST as soon as I became aware of the problem -- a message pointing out that I do not have the details these people are asking for. Because LINGUIST is a moderated list, however, my clarification is sitting there waiting for somebody to stick it into a clump and distribute it. That may be next week. Meanwhile I'm sitting here writing note after note saying "I don't know. I didn't even hear the offensive NPR broadcast. That posting on LINGUIST was part of an ongoing discussion on ADS-L. Without the context, it makes no sense." I find the situation *very* frustrating, to say the least. I find most things about moderated lists annoying. There are other people, of course, who like them. --Natalie ([log in to unmask])