[Robert_Paulson2]

honestly? how many would I miss?

NONE... I receive email from certain posters that I ASK to let me know when they find or create an important post. ALWAYS.

When I opt in, I like ping lists.
When I don't opt in, they are irritating.

It's the involuntary ping lists that seem to be an abuse of the system.

I end up wasting time going to articles where folks are NOT really asking me to comment on information or events.

When on a dial up away from the t-1, it takes a LONG time to load, review then skip down till I find the articles where someone is actually asking me a question or calling me to a thread I WANT to see.

I am on several ping lists.

I am on several email chains.

I don't need involuntary spam links put in my "comments to me" page... they waste my time, bandwidth and keep me from getting to the data that is relevant.

[ChemistCat]

You know, there are ping-free zones all over the internet. There are places where, when someone else directly insults you, you might completely miss the fact. ;-)

The annoyance of pings resembles the annoyance one feels when one climbs into one's car, and there's this big WHEEL thing in the way in front of you, taking up all the space where your knees want to be. And under your feet, these annoying pedals. Man, those things sure get in the way. And that tilt lever, my oh my, that is mighty inconvenient, having to push it and then move the whole wheel and everything.