The day to day CR emails were a great resource about a decade ago, but most of the most knowledgeable people have simply given up because of the number of people posting who simply don't have the required knowledge to be useful to others. If 10 years ago I would read close to 100% of the messages and 5 years ago I would read perhaps 50% of messages, I would guess that I now might read 5%.

The same goes for the ebay outings made on there. It used to be that "good Samaritans" would highlight interesting listings, but now they are virtually all self-promotion (I too am guilty of this, but at least I always tried to include a major dose of background information so that even if one did not buy the listed item, the reader of the listing would learn something.)

Use the archives and then determine who are the dependable people you can turn to. Most people with knowledge will be more than happy to share it with you if asked.

PS: Jan, nobody screens requests to join the CR list, so you must have made an error in applying or perhaps made teh request during one of the rare periods where there were software problems (there have been a few of those over the years)