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.