Hi, In the space of a year the AoIR list has gone from being mildly interesting to being almost unreadable. I am not the only one who is noticing the deterioration. In the interests of communication I suggest we: 1) Learn to use our email options and preferences. If an Internet researcher used the AoIR list as an unobtrusive indicator of the 'technical knowledge' of Internet researchers, their conclusions would be dire. 2) Refrain from posting HTML, Word .doc (and other word processor) files as well as MIME files. JUST PLAIN ASCII PLEASE. ASCII file convertors are available for most word processors. Also please check the options list re ASCII in your email program. 3) Limit the recent trend towards posting 'brain farts', personal attacks, and comments intended for one other person. THIS IS A PUBLIC INFORMATION LIST. Please email personal comments one-to-one. 4) Actually think about what we post, and, in particular, assess how useful will it be to a wide range of list members. Idiosyncratic commentary and unedited streams of consciousness are pushing the noise-to-signal ratio way up. Cheers, david neice ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ David C. Neice DPhil. digital-literacy.com :-) Website at http://www.kw.igs.net/~neice/ Address: 47 Combermere, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 5B2 Tel: 519-885-2951 Fax: 519-885-5263 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~