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Now that the list has calmed down after last week's hyperactivity, I would like to remind members that this Mailbase facility does require them to exercise some restraint and consideration for others. Archives-nra has been very successful with currently in excess of 800 members and 70 messages posted every month. The list is managed by four volunteer co-owners on a rotational basis. At present Brenda Weeden and I (the other two are Simon Wilson and Jim Jamieson) take turns to vet messages that might infringe the Mailbase's rules and to assist members in leaving and joining the list and in suspending and resuming their mail. Members may not be aware that whenever a message is posted to the list, the co-owners receive a copy together with reports on failures to deliver the message to any of the membership. Generally about five such error messages accompany each message posted. Last week the volume of message increased massively. Many members' email is routed through central servers which may ration the number of messages received. Consequently error messages proliferated to about ten for every posting. My own email went down last Thursday morning and Brenda's on Friday. We were helpless to intervene to stem the flow of witticisms. It has taken up most of today for both of us to restore our email and to deal with over 900 messages on each of our systems. We are also trying to help members with their routine requests. Buried under this mountain of mail there are some messages that are important for the work that we both paid to do. We hope therefore that members may appreciate that we are not exactly convulsed with mirth by last week's offerings. Those who wish to save their favourite gems are advised to access the month's archive at <http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/archives-nra/2000-08/welcome.html> before I edit the listing over the next few days. I understand that there are a large number of list serves that are dedicated to the recycling of jokes. I have myself some quite good ones on David Beckham and Philip Neville (requests off-list please). As a bearded but uncardiganed archivist I would be pleased to receive the location of suitable sites (again off-list please). Finally as it seems that two of our members are vying for the perverse distinction of posting the most messages to the list, perhaps they might dedicate their considerable free time to joining our rota of co-owners where they may gain a different perspective on just how funny it all is. Dick Sargent Director of the National Register of Archives %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%