Hi Liz,
 
You said:
>     One of our mandates as professional archaeologists is to disseminate
>     what we have learned through our experience to others.  This is a
>     priority that we should all keep in the forefront of our minds when
>     answering questions on this list.
 
 
Not willing to pass any sort of judgement on this particular case, but more
than a little queered over the piling on I'm witnessing, I would add that
there has to be some relevancy and appropriateness attached to your
professional "mandate." We are not here to fulfill slavishly every whim and
desire of all the world's day-dream believers. As a "professional" List the
"other" needs to accept responsibility and respect the List's nature in
order to expect any kind of professional work towards a suitable answer to
their query. Otherwise, your "mandate" reduces the List to just another
chaotic chat room! Isn't that what Usenet was created for?
 
Cheers,
 
--Lenny__