Noise levels increasing and have become deafening

Coming from someone with a 24-line signature, ragging other people about appropriate mailing list behavior strikes me as just a bit hypocritical. Every time 1 or 2 people make noise about "noise" on the list, Sam jumps on his "This list needs a moderator and I'm the man for the job" soapbox and everybody grumbles about leaving until he settles down; I don't really see the point. Judging by the relatively small number of complaints, I'd have to guess that most of the users (myself included) don't have a problem with the way the list is operating. I typically read the mail from this list in batches, as I have time; I use Forte Agent, and have a rule set up to sort messages from "classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu" into a seperate folder, just like I do the other mailing lists I'm on. That way, I don't have to wade through list messages to find my personal e-mail. I guess I'm with Max - if you want an encyclopedia, get one. I prefer to deal with my on-line friends and neighbors as whole people, not chopped up according to arbitrary criteria and stuffed into neat little pigeonholes just to keep a few anal-retentive people happy... Bill Richman incolor.inetnebr.com/bill_r (Home of the COSMAC Elf microcomputer simulator!)