ml> good point! but, sadly, not all areas can use fully spelled out
 ml> directory names... this one, however, fits perfectly into the 8.3
 ml> format! ;) :)

 RW> Kinda like putting a European echo name into FastEcho. Their
 RW> tendency to insert a . between two words doesn't always work out
 RW> like it should. 

it works fine for echotags... however, not all software creates area names
based on the tags and not all software can handle long filenames...

FWIW: those dots in the area names have their origination in the usenet
newsgroups formats... the dots were seen as directory separators so there
was easy conversion... i do it here with my JAMbases but am still limited
to 8.3 lengths for each of them...

eg: 
alt.audio.pro                     X:\JAM\GRPS\ALT\AUDIO\PRO
rec.audio.pro.live-sound          X:\JAM\GRPS\REC\AUDIO\PRO\LIVE-SND
rec.arts.movies.production.sound  X:\JAM\GRPS\REC\ARTS\MOVIES\PRODUCTI.ON\SOUND

MSG areas can also easily use this style...

)\/(ark