Let me start by saying that I think e-mail is fabulous despite the fact that spam has increased since the government passed the CAN-SPAM Act. Lots of folks complain about spam, now said to represent more than 50% of all e-mail, but spam doesn't bother me. Every day I cancel dozens of messages waiting to be downloaded from my service provider and only allow mail I want to see to enter my PC. It's easy to tell spam from legitimate mail from the subject matter and return addresses. I've suggested many times that folks use free MAILWASHER available at http://www.mailwasher.net to get rid of junk mail before downloading it.

I probably receive as much e-mail as anyone, averaging about 30 messages per day not including spam I delete before downloading. This is because I manage four ISP-based e-mail lists totaling 774 addresses that constantly churn with mail from members and requests for address changes. The lists are River Bend e-mail (349), New Bern Computer Users Group (324), Pickin and Grinin Group (56) and the New Bern Century Cyclists (45).

Much of my mail requires a reply so I use the free Eudora mail program that lets me split the screen to see incoming and outgoing message headers at the same time, something Outlook Express can’t do. Since retaining mail in an inbox and outbox is said to slow down a mail program, I only keep 3 days of mail headers visible and transfer old headers to mailboxes labled "Old Inbox" and "Old Outbox" where messages remain for months. I also create numerous special mailboxes such as "List Changes" where requests for address changes go and "MS-150 Pledges" where messages supporting the annual Multiple Sclerosis cycling tour go. All total I have 29 mailboxes. I search these often for a particular old message and find that Eudora's search engine is very helpful. By the way, Eudora is free and may be downloaded from http://www.eudora.com/. You can have a second e-mail program and use either one.

Every so often I receive suggestions on how to manage the e-mail lists. Most suggestions have good intentions but usually require more work than I can take on. For example, if rules are established someone has to be the policeman. If new lists are started for specific topics then someone has to administer them. Few towns have an e-mail list like River Bend's, especially since it's not run by the town. If the town ran it we'd probably have many rules. I like to think that members use common sense in sending out mail and don't need rules, but if members begin bickering and administering the list ceases to be fun it will be time for me to move on.

I'd like to end this with a few of my pet peeves regarding e-mail sent to lists.

1. Someone asks a question on RBmail. You answer them and consider that others might like to see your answer so you send your reply to the person and RBmail. The person asking the question gets two copies. Why not just send your answer to RBmail?

2. Someone sends you a scam warning that was sent by somebody that was sent by somebody, etc. Why don't you learn how to clean up the message by deleting all the former headings before forwarding it?

3. Someone sends you a message that e-mail is going to be taxed and you send it immediately to everybody you know. Why don't you put a few key words from the message into www.google.com and find out if it's true or not? You'll get an answer a lot faster at Google than sending the message to me asking if it's true.

4. Someone sends you a great photo that you think everybody should see. Problem is that it's 200kb in size. Why don't you resize the photo for e-mail using free Photo Resizer at http://www.showyourphotos.com/photoresizer_free.html so folks won't have to spend so much time downloading it? Practically all photos can be resized to around 60kb or less. A relative, whom I politely asked to attach only one photo to a message instead of several complied. He then sent 12 messages each with a photo attached! Some days you can't win.

5. You send out a great message with your profound thoughts on a topic. But your spelling mistakes overshadow what you have to say. If you really want to convince people use a spelling checker before sending your message.

All previous articles for the RIVER BENDER since 1998 are posted at http://www.always-online.com/nbcug/dwindex.htm