What you fail to realize is that every Westfalia owner also owns a
Vanagon. We westy owners would have to join and post to both lists to
cover all our situations. Along those lines it would also make sense to
split the list for syncro types, aircooled, diesel, eurovans, crew cabs,
hybrid electric limos, all the conversions.... as all these areas get
into some pretty specific and lengthy discussions at times. All this
would do is ruin the whole thing for everyone.

Since I joined the list a couple years ago I went from using a 14.4
modem to a 33.6 to a cable modem, back to a 14.4 for a few days, then to
a 56k that runs poorly. During all those different connection speeds I
never had a problem with list mail. Why? I know how to use my e-mail
program to the most advantage. I've used both IE and Netscape and both
of their email programs have the option of setting up filters based on
criteria you choose. Like all mail sent to you from the list has the to:
section as vanagon@vanagon.com. You simply set the filter to send all
mail under the header to: vanagon@vangon.com to a special folder you
could call LIST. Now you won't have any trouble getting list messages
mixed up with your personal mail.

On an other note. If you go out of town and you know you will have a ton
of mail waiting for you. Simply start to download it while you eat or
take a shower. Then it's done when you return. If you're paying per
minute for net access then you might be a little behind the times, get a
connection that offers unlimited access. You could also look in to
getting your mail by digest form or reading from the web.

Doing one of the above might help you with your mail trouble without
taking anything from the other 99% who don't have a problem with list
volume.

_______________________
Erik O        Akron, Oh
82 GTI Westfalia
http://ebyte.com/gl
http://ebyte.com/wow