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To: Barbara Patterson (et al) From: Dick Schomburg, [log in to unmask] Michele Sears recently noted that a number of us access this group (for a fee) thru the email ports of commercial on-line services, and that the inclusion of long-ish articles may not be appropriate, due to the possible costs involved for us. While her concern is appreciated, I myself would hate to miss valuable and informative material on that basis. Some of our best communications generated so far have also been among the longest ... yet I think that no item has been more costly than (say) one Eldepryl tablet !!! In any event, at least for those of us on CompuServe, two simple methods of controlling incoming-email costs already exist: [1] We have the choice of ignoring (or deleting-without-reading) specific items of "postage-due" mail (as from the Internet), in which case there is no charge. (The message subject and filesize are available as free clues !!) [2] Any participant can activate the listserver "digest" feature, so that the group's messages will be accumulated over a day or two and sent to him/her in a batch, which is a saving over receiving numerous short messages. This is achieved by sending the message SET PARKINSN DIG to the server address: [log in to unmask] with the appropriate Internet email preamble. I have found it to be effective. CompuServe email rates for incoming Internet items are $0.15 for the first 7500 characters, and $0.05 for each additional 2500 characters. However, each month we have a "free" allowance of $9.00 for such charges, and so we may incur no additional costs whatever, depending on our individual level of activity. So my preference is to NOT propose message-size limitations, at least on this basis. But Michele's thought is appreciated ... Regards, Dick