> May I suggest, as an interim measure, the method adopted by radio
> amateurs. Every city has one or more 'repeaters'. These accept incoming
> calls on a particular frequency, amplify them and re-transmit on an
> alternate frequency. It is etiquette to call CQ (who's there, in
> essence) on the repeater input channel, and once contact has been made
> with one or more people, move to a mutually-agreed frequency, thus
> leaving the repeater free once more.

I've never tried it but I gather one can filter out all subjects
with "OT" in them.  The folks on this group are awfully
good about adding the "OT" label.  Wouldn't such a filter
do the trick for you?

I hate losing anyone because the PIC group is a pretty
good brain trust.

Cheers,

Win Wiencke
ImageLogic@ibm.net