Andrew Warren sent me email asking:

>Was I out of line sending that message about Lance Walley's "Surplus.txt
>as promised" message?  Please clarify the list's policy regarding this
>type of "SALE!!  THIS MONTH ONLY!!!" advertising.

I responded as follows:

>Andrew,
>
>Out of line?! I should thank you for your pithy response to Lance
>(actually I will: thanks for your pithy response to Lance). If I wasn't so
>strapped for time right now, I would have posted my opinion as well.
>
>Were you around when Lance first came on the list a couple months ago? He
>posted some (in my opinion) spam, and I called him on it in an exchange
>posted to the list (which I would be happy to forward to you). He promptly
>apologized for his possible misdeeds, but many members of the list were
>fairly supportive of his posting and a relatively high degree of general
>commercialism (much to my chagrin).
>
>My initial response to Lance was a bit tempered, since I generally try to
>take a hands-off approach to list content... as long as it's on-topic and
>comes from actual members of the piclist. However, I always try to be open
>to new approaches to problems, and might be persuaded to implement a more
>stringent policy. Any suggestions?
>
>-jory
>
>ps: When we had a totally random spammer a few months back, I sent him a
>note notifying him that any further mail from him or his associates would
>be considered commercial, and would be subject to a $US1000K per
>subscriber per message charge for review by our microcontroller experts.
>If only...