Napster and music sharing/stealing: I personally like being able to preview an album before I buy it. I'm very limited on money, so even spending $15 on a CD is a big investment to me. Being able to listen to the music first has saved me some wasted money. The local record store in town used to let people listen to music before they bought it - they had an area set aside with headphones, and they'd just give you the CD to take and listen to. Unfortunately, their lease wasn't renewed because an On-Cue opened up in the same strip mall, and the owner of that strip mall decided he didn't want them both there. If I hear a single I like, I'll use MP3s to listen to other songs by the band, to make sure that the CD is worth buying. I recall one particular case where there were a couple of singles I liked, so I downloaded some other songs by the group, and hated them. Obviously, I deleted them right away, and didn't bother getting the CD. If I like the music, I buy the CD... and it's not illegal to have MP3s of music you've bought. As far as singles, my opinion is that it's okay to have MP3s of them... I'm sure I'm not the only person who taped songs I liked off the radio as a kid. That's sort of right on the line between "okay" and "not okay" in my book. The songs are available for distribution on the radio, where just about anyone can listen to and record them. It's not the same thing as deliberately searching out and burning an unreleased song. I know now everyone is going to agree with me on that, and that's fine... like I said, it seems to me that that's kind of in the grey area. I'm one of those people with a high moral code, as regarding shareware, taking things without paying for them, etc, so I do think that downloading an entire album when you have no intention of buying it is wrong.

Newbies: After someone has been on the list for a couple of months, and has the general idea of how things work on the list, I don't think being a "newbie" or not is an issue anymore. When someone is brand new, they may not realize exactly how the list works, especially if they're new to computers and discussion lists both. If someone is doing a/s/l requests, or bombarding the list with completely irrelevant things, then someone who's been around longer will usually let them know that that's not the way this list works. Personally, even the irrelevant stuff doesn't really bug me much... and if it does, I'll just delete it. My only concern is that when there's more Creed news, we still have that message cap on the list, and I don't really want us to miss something relevant because someone just HAD to post that their cat learned how to sit up on command. But right now, the message cap isn't really an issue either. I think (my opinion) that as long as someone isn't completely and totally missing the point, that there's no harm in continuing a discussion... if it gets to personal attacks, that's a little different. *shudders at memories of the election* And just for the record, I myself have been on the list for longer than a month or two... so hopefully that means that my opinion and views will be respected, even if not agreed with.