Although I, like the other members of the Smithsonian community who are contributing to their opinions about how to censor --excuse me, MANAGE-- the content of MUSEUM-L, am also very busy and occasionally astounded by the volume of messages I receive, I am against placing external controls on the list in any way. I subscribe to the naive notion that this list documents the thoughts and dialogs of a community of practitioners, and any attempt at moderating or editing the transactions will change the character and value of this community. True, I can get lots of the information on this list from other sources, but I can only get a sense of what museum practitioners think from sampling the range of topics and responses that greet me every morning. I can always decide which threads are irrelevant to me, but I can only make this decision if I see the whole list. Even though I sometimes have to work through fifty to one-hundred messages a day, I do not want anyone deciding which fifty messages I get to see. I know this has been said before, but if you don't want to read a message you can delete it with one keystroke. I hope those interested in "improving" this list will use this option more often and leave the rest of us to browse the list in the way(s) we see fit. Thanks for the soapbox --Adam Bickford Adam Bickford, Smithsonian Institution, Institutional Studies Office:: [log in to unmask] (202) 786-2289