Of course no one can condone the public posting of a private message, and I certainly don't. But I can't help being amused at seeing Caroline Nachman and SquareNote cast in the role of victim--and on the listowners' list, of all places! She and her associates are shamelessly cynical marketers who have built an entire promotional strategy around the blind spot that many listowners have about using .sig files for advertising, and they have used this strategy for at least a year to victimize subscribers on dozens, perhaps hundreds, of lists. The gimmick is to post a one-line, generally topical query, so that the .sig file is prominently displayed. (The "free software" is, of course, crippleware bait for the commercial version.) What is so insidious about this is that other subscribers go to some effort to answer these "queries" in good faith, not realizing that it's all a game, and as a result everyone's time is wasted. What policy one chooses to adopt toward this is up to each listowner, of course. Those who choose to filter will be glad to know that Nachman and her associates' addresses have the extension "@sqn.com," though I've been told that in response to such efforts SquareNote has recently begun advertising to hire people to invade lists on its behalf. In any case, more information about this promotional campaign (including the havoc it wreaked on Usenet before SquareNote expanded its tactics to lists), may be found by doing a search for "SquareNote" on DejaNews and in the archives of SPAM-L. Patrick Leary listowner, SHARP-L and VICTORIA [log in to unmask]