I found out quite accidentally (by calling him at the hospital)
that since I last saw him, he had been moved to a different room,
and had just been DISCHARGED this morning!

That was really amazing recovery, well ahead of the schedule that
Richard said he MAY be discharged as early as April.

He is now staying at his parent's home.

In another week or 10 days, he'll have his DSL line setup there
and will be able to post and say "Hi" to everyone.

I asked him about why the LISTSERV "automatic confirmation"
check for subscription had been turned off.  He said it was
probably during the switch of the cable and machine at UTC that
it was accidentally turn off and not reset.

Makes sense.

So, the current status of Scuba-SE is just like it had always been:

      OPEN,  PUBLIC,  with email address confirmation.

The total "work" to switch OFF and ON is about the same as turning
a light switch on and off in any room.  ;-)  None of the vote or
hoopla would have been necessary because the switch was ACCIDENTALLY
turned off, and it would not have been necessary to ask subscriber's
permission to re-set it back to its original status, which Jeff had
all along, since 1994!

-- Bob