I'm in trouble

[Neil Jones]

I am against encouraging the usage of this system for advertising.
Since someone is carrying out a statistically unsound survey I might
as well jump in.

I am not particularly offended by most of the postings of this kind
which occur. However, it is another issue which concerns me.

Lists depend on their subscribers for their survival. If there are too few
subscribers and everyone looses interest. Conversely, a busy list may deter
people from activity. It is this principle which those most virulently
opposed to "spamming" object. By spamming I mean the distribution of the
Porn adverts, scams, offers of foreign brides etc. which the active members
of this group get regularly.

Having been involved in managing a listserver myself I know that an issue for
subscribers is the number of emails that they receive. Today I received
in excess of 60! I have a set up my system to segregate these into
categories but not everyone has the expertese or facilities to do this.

There are other lists specifically for exchanging livestock and trading.
It is these that should be used.

If the boundaries between list charters are blured, people will tend to
cross post more frequently increasing the email burden on those with
narrower interests and discouraging them from participating.

However, if list boundaries are tightly defined a greater number of 
people can participate in their specialised areas of interest.

-- 
Neil Jones- Neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk http://www.nwjones.demon.co.uk/
"At some point I had to stand up and be counted. Who speaks for the
butterflies?" Andrew Lees - The quotation on his memorial at Crymlyn Bog
National Nature Reserve