The purpose is this list is to exclude "newbies" and the volume they create--hopefully making this a low-volume list. This list is for the advanced survivalist. The advanced survivalist has spent tens of thousands of dollars on her lifestyle and is well-read in survival literature. He lives in a rural area (not even close to a city or interstate), west of the Mississippi. This list is not a political place to post current events. In other words, if its on misc.survivalism, it doesnt belong here. Most of us already read that newsgroup. Other than that, all content is acceptable. This list is being created because of the overwhelming volume on m.s. due to the perceived y2k threat. That threat has driven away most of the knowledgeable people and reduced the group to redundancy almost weekly as of sept.