Hi All,

Seems to me that a fourm takes much more BW than a list. The list gets downloaded and looked at off line, taking NO B/W. By contrast, a fourm requires everyone to be ON LINE the whole time.

I for one will take the option of another list in a New York minute! Much faster and easier to track the threads.

If I download the messages I can press a button and sort by any of several ways to find the item of interest, be it by sender, subject, date and etc. Filters also pop things into their own folders, helping me to get a little organized at least.

And there is NO doubt as to what messages I've read and haven't read when using a list. The UNIX mail server marks each message that is to me vs to the list. It marks those that I have read and it marks those that I have replied to. That has the added attraction that it does't matter what machine I use to check the mail all the marks are still there!

Ditto the address book.

Being behind a firewall keeps me out of the chat room and causes other slowdowns.

I have no trouble with splitting the different types of posts into different places. I just don't care for a step backward in ease of use and speed for me!

And one little hint....

If you are going to send in a score in any major contest like the ARRL SS, be sure to NOT use anything like a chat window to exchange any info about who is where. This is another form of spotting and moves you into the assisted class. And there is no QRP there! :-)

Off to bed.....