James:
The reason why certain messages should only be sent back to a specific individual instead of the entire group is if it is of interest only to one person. For example, if the message is: "it appears that your grandmother Ceil is the sister to my grandmother Sadie, what do you think?" Thousands of members have no interest in this subject. On the other hand, if as you say there is information about German Minority Census, Czech army records, or the Gulag Archipelago, as you mentioned, that type of information should absolutely go out to everyone, and it does. The moderators will write back and let you know if a message should go to an individual as opposed to the entire group. The moderator note at the end of the first message in this thread will tell you how to respond individually.

Phil Goldfarb
Lead Moderator, JewishGen Discussion group
phil.goldfarb@...