Subject: RE: list description
From: Jan Zumwalt (jwzumwalt@neatinfo.com)
Date: Sun Dec 29 2002 - 00:55:44 AKST
Some personal observations...
I feel the list does have control over the default recipient. The "lister"
has an option of putting the "list" or the "author" in the "from" header.
Therefore, the default "reply" recipient is being controlled. The AKLUG
list was the first I had ever run across that placed the "author's" address
in the "from" header and caused me grief for a week or two before I realized
what was happening.
My good friend Arthur Corliss and I both have "lists" on his box and we
differ philosophically on this matter. I think he'll forgive me for putting
words in his mouth but when we set the lists on his box up, he also set the
default to "author" in the "from" header. The list I maintain had people
that were computer illiterate and this "feature" made the list worthless to
them. After a week or two he realized with disgust just how helpless some
people really are and relented to a default "list address" for the "from"
header.
He took the position (again my words in his mouth) that the people are
responsible for a minimum knowledge before operating equipment :). So to
speak if a person can't move the mouse pointer to the proper check boxes,
who cares? I feel that equipment should be designed to require the least
fuss or knowledge. Who is right? Neither - it's just differences in points
of view.
I would have never mentioned my opinion on the subject had it not received
several e-mails already... After all, we are very fortunate to have the
expertise of the volunteers that have set up the list box - right! In my
past volunteer work, one of the most frustrating aspects of being a
volunteer is doing the work and having people bitch about things they are
too lazy to get off their rump and do something about; I do not want to be
one of those people.
However, my philosophy is that the accommodations should be for the target
group and that is what needs to be acknowledged. Is the list for the
"newbie" or "neophyte", if so user friendliness should take on a high
priority. Or is it for the seasoned professional and the newbie is to watch
and learn? If that's the case then the "newbie" needs to adjust to the
mentor.
A case in point... most of us are professionals on this list. But look back
at the e-mails and see just how many messages we each have sent were we
drifted from the original topic? Did we take the time to change the
"subject" line. We should, but we don't! We pro's are also guilty of using
the path of least resistance and a bit of nativity in our e-mail etiquette.
I would prefer the header point back to the list, but I would rather take
the 30seconds to modify each mail header at my home then to chip away at the
moral of our volunteer workers. Ultimately I leave the decision in the hands
of the volunteer worker maintaining the list. I just ask that the worker
carefully look at the pros & cons - I'll support either decision.
Jan Zumwalt
-----Original Message-----
From: aklug-bounce@aklug.org [mailto:aklug-bounce@aklug.org]On Behalf Of
Justin Dieters
Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2002 11:52 PM
To: Quemielle DuChesne
Cc: Adam Elkins; aklug@aklug.org
Subject: Re: list description
The list has zero to do with it. All the list does is forward messages
it receives to everyone on the list. Any Replying, Cc'ing, etc is
handled by the users and the e-mail program they use - NOT the list.
If you don't want to do reply-all, then type in your addresses yourself
or use an address book. All easy solutions. The list is not a message
board and it does not operate like a message board. If you don't have
time or patience to cut-and-paste or type an e-mail address as a
solution to your problem, then quite frankly, Linux is probably not the
OS of choice for you.
As for 'oldbies' vs. 'newbies', there is a very good reason why RTFM and
STFW are popular expressions. Most 'newbie' questions have been
answered many many times, and solutions are posted all over the web, and
even though we are a smallish group, you can search all the past
messages sent to the list - there have been quite a lot of questions
asked and answered, I personally have over 2400 messages in my 'AKLUG'
folder, and that's just 4 months worth of mail.
Before this turns into some big flame war, I would recommend reading the
preface of the Smoothwall FAQ - it contains some very insightful
observations that anyone who posts to a Linux list/board/chat room
should take to heart. It's only 20 short (i.e. large font) pages - it
will only take all of 5 or 10 minutes to read.
You can find it at http://smoothwall.org/download/pdf/docs/0.9.9/doc.faq.pdf
Regards,
Justin
Quemielle DuChesne wrote:
> The music discussion. Matt says he's gotten about 20 emails, either
initial
> replies or subsequent discussion. The settings for the list take the
> 'reply' directly to the poster unless 'reply-all' is used. I personally
> don't care to get two copies of everything and assume most people don't,
so
> pushing 'reply-all' is a repugnant choice. Since most have precious little
> time to do even minor fiddling, rather than type the group's addy in and
> fiddle with the subject line, most push the plain 'reply'.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2a23 : Sun Dec 29 2002 - 00:54:21 AKST