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Take the walking into a room analogy (I think a pub

would be more appropriate, though that might just be my take on it). Here's a group of people all sitting round a table, they all 'know' each other, and they're all deep in discussion on subjects that they not only know a lot about but care about a lot. Then someone new turns up, a complete stranger, drink in hand, and she finds herself a seat on the corner. Well, that has happened to me quite a few times, and I wasn't surprised to find myself more or less out of the conversation. It's the way things happen. It's not unfriendly,it's not a deliberate snub (though, yes, it can feel like one), it's just that groups of like-minded people, even virtual ones, have a habit of forming cliques that can be hard to penetrate.<<

I appreciate this more than you realise, and yes, I do know that tightly knit groups can be hard to penetrate, ironically, in a RL situation, you would not even find me attempting to penetrate the group - I seem to be more outgoing on the net (don't ask me why). As I explained in my post to Minnie, it is so much harder to ascertain intent through a faceless medium - In the pub situation, I would be able to detect a snub through expressions and body language, I don't have that to work with on the list - I can only go by response(or lack of) :-)

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Can you see how you might be getting drowned out in

the babble!<<

Yes, I appreciate that my posts could indeed be lost in the crowd, I'm still going through posts myself - I guess I was referring to posts that were being dealt with on a particular subject, However; I take note of your explanation regarding answering the posts of those you know first - again (as with Sally)this is understandable.

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You're also up against some of the most informed,

quite possibly opinionated and in my case at least arrogant members of the Lyst who are too busy bludgeoning the opposition with the intellectual weight of their carefully honed arguments to stop to say hello to a new face:) (Actually, any bludgeoning might exist only in my imagination, but it certainly has been a very challenging - and enjoyably so - month for my brain.)<<

This is one of the things which struck me straight away about this list, the level of intelligence in the conversations - don't get me wrong, I can babble along with the best of them, when it comes to how gorgeous, I think Avon is :-) but that level of chatter can't be kept up forever, I don't agree with all the philosophies on this list but I have enjoyed reading them.

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Normally when new arrivals appear they do get a few

welcome messages, but then we're not normally so distracted. So may I at least say, Welcome to the Lyst, Cheryl.<<

Thank you for the welcome :-)