Cyndi's List - FAQ
Why don't you have a guestbook?

Guestbooks are quite a bit of work to maintain. Also, anyone can post anything they like to them, so I run the risk of having something inappropriate or offensive posted, as well as advertisements, etc. The messages in the guestbook make the guestbook file grow daily, so it is necessary to have web server space to store the file and it is also necessary to periodically clean out the file and archive the older messages in order to make room for the new messages. The ISP for my personal account doesn't offer a guestbook as part of my service, so I didn't include one when I originally started the site. I could add one from one of the online services that offers them, but I have heard so many nightmares from friends who use these. I could find the script to run one from my own site and then try to find the time and energy it takes to maintain it appropriately. However, I prefer to spend my time finding links and updating the pages on Cyndi's List instead. Another reason is that many guestbooks end up being used for posting queries and surnames. There are a multitude of sites available for queries and surnames, so there is no need for me to duplicate that effort.