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As one who received early notification from Architectronics that Mailbase had decided to block mail from Geocities, I felt very strongly that it had been a bad decision, appearing as it did to be the first signs of censorship on the lists. The majority of replies which I have read are in favour of the action which has been taken. However, I have supervised dissertations on Internet censorship and this issue is very complex. There have been a number of discussions on whether students should join (and make requests to) the mailbase lists - I personally think that lists for academics should not be open to students but most people disagreed. There was a discussion on requests for "missed videorecordings" on one list - I don't think the lists are the place for these, but I can see the opposite view. Nobody knows why anyone chooses a particular IP provider, except that one person uses Geocities for social use; however, I think there is a simple answer and it comes from Mailbase's Built Environment, which is a "closed" list in that application to the list owner has to be made to join. Perhaps this should be the way forward? At least then a simple proforma might be used? We already have filtering to rid us of what we don't like, but I would be very loath to discover that a legitimate comment on a particular issue had been rejected because Mailbase didn't like Geocities or whatever. I hope the discussions about refusals will consider these implications of censorship. Roy Killey, formerly Academic Liaison Librarian (Design and Communication Systems), Anglia Polytechnic University, Chelmsford 28 Howe Lane, Nafferton, DRIFFIELD, East Yorkshire, YO25 4JU Phone 01377 254718 Email [log in to unmask] "Information is power, but people matter more than things" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%