--- susan ruth marengo wrote: > ... Frankly, I get very very very tired of the list police ... A PARABLE An illiterate man walks into a train station. He sees on the wall the set of clocks displaying the times in the various cities in different time zones served by the train. Unable to read the labels beneath the clocks, he asks the station-master, "Why do you have so many clocks, each telling a different time?" The station-master replies, "If they all told the same time, we wouldn't need so many, would we?" THE MORAL Different things exist because they serve different purposes. My point is that there are plenty of general-purpose birding lists. Birdchat and Bird Forum immediately come to mind, and now we have the OOS forums as well. If one desires a birding list with varied topics, one has plenty of places to go. However, there is only one list that is dedicated to Ohio birds and birding, and this is it. There is nothing wrong with keeping Ohio-birds focused on Ohio birds. In fact that focus is the only reason for the list to exist. It is inevitable that some people, particularly those new to the list, will stray off topic. It is appropriate that they be politely steered to a forum that better matches their interests. Admittedly these exchanges are tiresome, and I suggest they be dealt with like any other tiresome topic - with the delete key. Regards, Paul Paul Gardner Columbus, OH ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]