----------------------------Original message---------------------------- I would also like to add my voice to the crowd endorsing the "big list concept". As a contribution I am adding a message that I had sent to GIS-L a while ago. I was on my soapbox about the poor use of the subject line in messages, but there is comment in here that is applicable to this disscussion. I am also sending it because this message caused me to receive more "way-to-go!" applause mail than anything I have created before or since! The headings could be chaged for the purposes of this list. ----appended message ------ May I add my voice to those who call for intelligent use of the Subject line in email messages. (Yes, I have been guilty of repping a message to death in the past!) If all users did this, much of the need for sub groups (and the organizational and user overhead that would go with them) would be mimimized. Efficiency of reading would be increased dramatically by the prescanning of the subjects in the list of messages for the day (or morning, whatever). (Imagine being able to delete all the subscribe/unsubscribe messages BEFORE reading them!) If we could develop accepted/frequently used headings for our notices new users would see them and adopt them too. Examples might be: DATA NEEDED: e.g. DATA NEEDED: Lower East NJ STANDARDS: e.g. STANDARDS: NTSR errors?? GONZOGIS: e.g. GONZOGIS: Customer Support Rigor Mortis (or other systems) CONFERENCE: e.g. CONFERENCE: 1st C. on silly terms in GIS other ideas please... (the idea of an informal tree structure like the reverse of the back end of an Internet address comes to mind here, but it is too late in the day.... Data.needed.nj.drainage Data.newrelease.nj.drainage Job.needed.US.MSc.newgrad ???) Realize too, the use of the Reply command can lead to subject problems. For example, the recent message about UNB (see my subj line) wasn't about UNB at all, but about the term Geomatics, a line of discussion that was started by the UNB announcment about their name change. (Interesting that none of the messages commented about the school, just their dislike of the term Geomatics.) Like many others (especially those who are stuck with the list server and not the reader) I am swamped with messages. I need mechanisms to filter. Division only serves to hide things from various users. Those gems that others referred to may, no will, be lost to the Inet grazer. Let's try to avoid it. If this sounds a little pompous, sorry. It is more like the confessions of an ex-sinner! Ideas?????? -----end of appended message------ Cheers, James James Britton [log in to unmask] GIS and Cartography Programs (705) 324-9144 Sir Sandford Fleming College (705) 878-9312 FAX School of Natural Resources Box 8000 Lindsay, ON Canada K9V 5E6 (*insert [witty ascii-based graphic],[disclaimer][,...]]*)