I agree with Sue that an occassional announcement about services might be more appropriate.  I am a professional genealogist, member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, and frequently conduct research at the LVA archives.  I have noticed the frequent postings offering research services.  I have hestitated to post an offer of my services since most lists strictly forbid "advertising", for good reasons.  But I can see the point of view that the postings have not been "real"  advertising,  but only offers to help.    I am very surprised at the general attitude on this list that such offers are appreciated, but I can understand that too.   It does seem to be the logical place for such offers. But another problem with such postings is that there are probably many other professionals on the list who could also post such offers and clog the list.  Perhaps a good solution would be to limit such announcements, and view them as helpful offers,  rather than ban them altogether.
 [the delete key always works well, if anyone isn't interested]

A good way to stir up action on the list is to have the reply sent to the entire list automatically.  From other lists,  I know that this generates more discussion,  and often everyone is interested in the answers to the inquiries. Another great way to generate discussion is to send out a Roll Call - have everyone state what families and/or what area you are researching. [family name/location or time period in the subject line]

One more comment:  it is helpful to researchers on this list if the archived emails on one topic all have the same Subject Line.  That way, if someone is using a "keyword" search,  they can find all the emails in the same thread of discussion. My email box is clogged with 48 emails today,  most of which I think are on this subject thread,   but which have different Subject Lines. [ I doubt if anyone is going to want to search the archives on this particular topic - but for future reference - you might want to keep the same subject line for the thread of discussion].

Langdon Hagen-Long
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