Let me try and address a problem I'm having with this question
and the one preceding, both of which are from folks not on CIS. I've
just gotten a number of emails from people saying they have a problem
here, in the sense that they pay CIS for access to this forum, and the
ability to ask questions publicly. To post a number of questions from
people not subscribers on CIS, giving them that ability, bothers some
of the users here who have to pay a subscription for that.

Personally, for me, a question is a question regardless of
source, and thus far, I've answered all questions forwarded from other
services here. It's an awkward situation, because if this were a free
service, as rastb5moderated would be, it doesn't *matter* where the
questions come from, it's all equally free. But I'm sort of "living"
in CIS's house while I'm here, and on a pragmatic level I have to be
considerate of the wishes of the people in whose house I'm hanging out.
Especially the wishes of the other users here. One user put it quite
bluntly: "If they want to ask you questions on CIS, why don't they sign
up and pay the money same as I do? This isn't fair."

So I've been debating what to do about this. My only solution,
poor as it is, is that questions here have to originate here. Once the
moderated group is open, which is free to all, anyone from anywhere can
ask as many questions as they choose, and this won't be an issue. For
now, this seems the only fair solution.

In short, I'd love to answer the forwarded questions, but I
feel I have to be responsive to the wishes of the users here.

jms

John Hardin <74076.22@compuserve.com> asks:
> However, given this policy, how do you respond to questions
> emailed to your CIS address?

It's an awful bind there as well. Up until now, I've been
responding to most of my email. I guess I consider email different
than a public posting, because anyone can direct email anyone without
having to use an intermediary to post in a forum. And it's a private
communication.

jms

{original post unavailable}

I absolutely agree on just about every count.

jms

{original post had no questions}

Yeah...it's a very difficult issue, and one I'm still working
through to find The Right Thing To Do.

jms