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Listmembers, I am feeling the need to state my position on the subject of list usage and courtesy. I have been a list member for one and a half years. I started out quite active trying to read everything and participate actively. After a few months because of some software problems and overload as well as worsening of my PD and then later because of not wanting to do anything to break the "Blind" of the study I and am in I became a lurker. I changed my method of receiving information to the "digest" form which had the advantage of not making it impossible to sort through my e-mail (non list items getting obscrued by list postings) but had the disadvantage of it becoming extremely difficult to sort through and pick and choose what I wanted to respond to. In the past several weeks I have gone back to receiving each item separately and find myself more active both making private responses to listmembers and public ones. But sorting through 50-100 or more posts per day is not easy. I have gotten to the point that if I see certain names I delete without reading even though sometimes those people have valuable things to say. I know several people who have joined the list been overwhelmed and intimidated by its size and dropped out. There is definately a place for jokes, poetry and meeting people on the list but given the size that we have reached I think that what I see as the primary raison d'etre of the list- information exchange about PD between PWP and our families getting swamped in a sea of "chat". Simon has been so kind as to set up the ability for other lists to be started. For those people- which may at times include me- who want the "chat" line approach consider setting up something through simon. This list serves a valuable function for the PD community. I think that anyone who posts on this list more than 1-2 times a week should ask themselves before they press the send button whether what they have to say is likely to be relevant to 1,500 people who have been drawn together by a common interset in Parkinson's Disease. I try to think about that carefully before deciding to give a personal reply or post it (or a question) on the list. I am not advocating censorship just common courtesy for 1500 people. Charlie -- ********************************************************** CHARLES T. MEYER, M.D. MADISON, WISCONSIN [log in to unmask] **********************************************************