>FWIW, I think the message in question from Lance should have been to the
>effect that they had decided to have a sale on the discontinued tools and
>people should ftp the file from Parallax if interested.

I agree.  Tim's comments are along the lines of the ones I made a while back
on sci.electronics when someone from National Semi was asking how vendors
should use the net.  The philosophy I suggested then was to broadcast only
"invitations to contact" (e.g.,  announcements of WWW or ftp site openings),
not the information itself.

In addition to Tim's recommendation,  I'd suggest three other criteria for
"commercial" postings to the list:

   1. That they be *directly* PIC-related.  I.e.,  it's okay to annouce a new
      PIC cross-assembler,  but not a "hot deal" on hard disks on the grounds
      that "PIC developers use machines with hard disks for compiling".
   2. That the info not be readily-available in the press.  E.g.,  Parallax
      announcing a sale on surplus equipment would be okay,  but not
      using the list to advertise their "hobbyist special" programmer,
      because that's part of their regular advertising.
   3. The information has to be "incomplete":  no snail mail addresses,
      no phone numbers,  no exact prices.  That would tend to (though not
      always,  of course) require email contact to make any sales,  which
      would discourage people from trying to use the list as an ad medium.

I think this makes a fairly good compromise that benefits all concerned,
while minimizing annoyance and noise.

Ran