I had posted this earlier in response to Jim's post but for some reason it did not go through?!! Whereas a later response to another mail did get through. I have changed the header and am retrying - apologies if you get two copies under different headers Dear all, I agree with your mail regarding the helpfulness and benefits of the list. However I just want to say that nowhere in my mail did I mention that the thread should vanish. In fact according to Linda and others it had already stopped eight hours before I posted my message, unfortunately for some reason I was getting messages through the day and there has been no eight hour gap as experienced by you all, my post was less than 30 minutes after the last message on the subject. Perhaps my post was a little unclear or I had used the wrong words but my feeling was that I detected a trend where people were comparing Access and Excel and scrambling to promote one or the other. I have seen such posts on other lists and they usually are a waste of time and effort. My point was that everyone uses what they are comfortable with and each person invariably feels that they are right! That goes for religion, car, operating system etc. My suggestion I suppose was to chill and get back to the topic. There is no need for people 'to take exception' to what has been said about a piece of software for goodness sake!! Maybe some of you don't agree with me on that - that's fine. I use Excel to 'calculate' my monthly shopping list (we have a foster home with fifteen kids) my Mum uses a scrap of paper - both do the job well for each of us - there is no point in us trying to change, I could explain how I do it but not be critical of her scrap of paper! When Linda responded in the way that she did by abruptly closing the thread I must confess that I was a little surprised as that was not at all my intention of the post, after all a few others also had expressed some surprise at the posts that were coming through. If I am wrong in what I am saying - who cares it is just an opinion amongst many and I am happy to get responses on that! There is no question of killing the thread on the basis of my opinion. I did not post after that since Linda had requested that however I have been corresponding off list regarding this matter. Please understand me I am saying YES to the discussion but my request was to keep responses more on the subject. There is no way that Linda can make an assumption that I would vote no on the matter. Remember that good folk like Ray Blake can make Excel perform miracles, even using Excel as a word processor! I would be unhappy if someone wrote back and took exception to him saying that since Word is far better for word processing - that is simply my point and I felt that was happening with the whole topic. Finally I must say that I now regret posting on that matter since the whole thing has been blown out of proportion. Perhaps due to my wording - Please accept my apologies unless that is also interpreted as 'right hearted wrong headed'. In future I will 'censor' my involvement to just asking questions. Regards Ian Elliott -----Original Message----- From: mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jim Pettit Sent: 09 June 2004 20:47 To: mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [mso] Moderation...or Censorship? Linda/All-- I've always found this newsgroup to be a good source of Office-related info because it comes from real end users, not from some Redmond-based spokesperson paid to peddle The Company line. To me, it's that separation that has given the group freedom, and it's that freedom that's given the group its usefulness. But now, over the past 24 hours or so I've watched what I consider a good and useful thread vanish without a trace because it bothered a few folks. That's not moderation, Linda; that's censorship. You wrote, "...it's not worth it if it makes members uncomfortable." If open, honest, wholly on-topic discussion makes some members uncomfortable, perhaps they can hang out in any of the myriad of Micro$oft's Official Newsgroups, where they're guaranteed to never hear a dissenting opinion. Yes, it's your group, and yes, you've done a better job than most at moderating what could have easily become a confusing, hand-waving, free-for-all. But still, if this group is going to avoid on-topic discussions because a few right-hearted but wrong-headed folks complain, I suppose I'm the one who needs to look elsewhere. --Jim ************************************************************* You are receiving this mail because you subscribed to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx or MicrosoftOffice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To send mail to the group, simply address it to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To Unsubscribe from this group, send an email to mso-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) in the subject line. Or, visit the group's homepage and use the dropdown menu. This will also allow you to change your email settings to digest or vacation (no mail). //www.freelists.org/webpage/mso To be able to use the files section for sharing files with the group, send a request to mso-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and you will be sent an invitation with instructions. 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This will also allow you to change your email settings to digest or vacation (no mail). //www.freelists.org/webpage/mso To be able to use the files section for sharing files with the group, send a request to mso-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and you will be sent an invitation with instructions. Once you are a member of the files group, you can go here to upload/download files: http://www.smartgroups.com/vault/msofiles *************************************************************