I found all the submissions interesting food for thought, and I tend to agree with this conclusion. I had thought for a while that it might make sense to keep discussions to prewar machines (wartime production for most radio- phonograph combinations and phonograph attachments was brought to a halt around March 1942, so just as with automobiles, there was a brief '42 model run. But then the thought that the technology was little changed in the early post-war years would tend to lump those years in as well. So the prewar boundary, although perhaps artificial becomes a way of defining and limiting content but there's a lot of cross-over information that would benefit post-war machines. Since Bakelite and other molded cases coexisted with wood cabinet machines from the '30s onward, and in light of the 45 and 33 1/3 speeds being introduced about 1948 and 1949, I think the cleanest way to establish a guideline would be to keep the topics primarily focused on the records and machines of the 78 rpm era (80 rpm disc and cylinder included). Perhaps the most relevant piece of communication had to do with semi off-topic postings dying off on their own. The bottom line is that if someone posts an innocent inquiry to this group because it seems the logical place to learn the needed information, and one of us can supply that information, all the better. After all, it's as much about passing down the wisdom and knowledge as it is about sharing in the joy of discovery. Andy Baron On Dec 26, 2006, at 8:16 PM, Loran T. Hughes wrote: > Walt, > > I found myself thinking along the same lines this evening. How > about we simply define ourselves as a forum of phonograph > collectors and not worry about some artificial boundary. Let the > discussions evolve as they may. > > Loran