You get these fax messages because somebody is using an internet broadcaster to send spam mail and faxes, perhaps the same person who has been annoying this list (well, me; I guess I can't speak for everybody) with sex-related messages. Probably erroneously, the reports of faxes having been sent are themselves being sent as e-mail. The difficulty is that the true source of these messages is concealed, so that we as list members have no way either sending them back or complaining to an appropriate person about them. If this list were managed (that is, if some live person were assigned to provide oversight over what is sent), then it would be possible to delete these messages before they're sent out. But to do that takes resources of various kinds, which are seldom available, and as a result this list is completely automated. That means that every message received by the list, appropriate or not, is sent on to the subscribers. Because the Internet gives the appearance of being free (of course it's not, but the costs aren't obvious to the end-users), it typically operates in a free and open way which makes it susceptible to abuses of this sort. If we wanted to pay for it, we could get such oversight (but then that raises many other issues, like who would do it). By the way, I believe a semi-colon is a special kind of period, not a coordinating conjunction. -- Michael G. Southwell ================================= Department of English York College/CUNY Jamaica, NY 11451 718/262-2470 (office), 2896 (fax) [log in to unmask] http://www.york.cuny.edu/~southwell ======================================================