The tests that periodically appear on various list environments always strike me as an interesting moment in the culture creation happening on the "Net". I used to always respond to questions asked directly to the asker's e-mail address, rather than posting it for all to read. It just seemed inappropriate to engage the group in a matter of transfering simple information. But if such lists are to be the public forums they were designed to be, then such individualization is misguided. The new users, tentative in their actions, and not quite convinced of the reality of the situation, are not to be faulted for acting on that lack of faith. That this act of creation is happening so self-consciously, and with such mind numbing speed, it's a wonder we're not all nodding and bowing at every turn. It may be a dumb assumption (not an unfamiliar act for me) that someone out there is looking at the cultural adjustments happening in our language and other communications, being wrought by this technology. While it may be dreary in the extreme to review all the archived material (It sounds like museum-l alone fills a small nation sized storage space with it's archived messages.) I can't imagine no-one has looked through at least some of it with a sociologist's eye. Anyone playing around with this stuff? Any thoughts on the matter? Aaron Goldblatt Please Touch Museum [log in to unmask]