I received a request this morning to delete a message from one of my lists' archives. The message in question was an e-oops (private embarrassing mail reply accidentally sent to the list. I have mixed feelings about doing this and would like to solicit your opinions and feedback on the matter. 1). Should listowners delete messages from list archives at subscriber requests? 2). Will doing so create a bad precedent that will lead to a list management nightmare? 3). Will refusing to do so create a legal/ethical dilemma for me in future if some unforseen thing happens where it might be necessary to do so--if I am ordered to do so by management, for instance. 4). Tech note: is it even possible to do such a thing? Is it just a matter of editing a flat file, or is there some behind-the-scenes checksumming going on that will invalidate the archive if you change its length? -aht