Subject: RE: list description
From: Larry Collier (larry@medease.com)
Date: Mon Dec 30 2002 - 13:32:20 AKST
This is the strangest discussion I've seen yet.
"reply" would send this to Arthur only but that is almost, but not quite,
never what I want to do.
"reply to all" would send this to Arthur, Greg, and the list as "cc". So
three people would get to see this twice. Since I'm sending, I don't mind
deleting my copy of the message returning to me from the list. At least I
know it made it that far.
I frequently see threads with "missing" messages - that's why I don't
generally remove any but the most useless of stuff from posts I'm replying
to. I have found the answers to the questions asked to be one the best
learning tools available. If I don't need your answer to some question, I
can delete it. If I can't read it, I'll never know.
My vote would be to have "reply" send to the list only. In the few cases I
want to reply directly, I'll change the address.
"STFW" -- this may be genetic but when I search the web, I get two kinds of
items. One is a lot of information about subjects which I really do not
want to know about; the other is lots of information about subjects which
are really interesting but not what I need to know right now. After burning
up hours of time on either one of these, "STFW" ceases to be a kind
response.
"RTFM" -- this may also be genetic, but I spend hours reading and rereading
the "FM" and frequently come to the belief that that writers of the "FM" do
not speak english or any other known human language. I also wonder why they
left out the answer to my problem.
My particular question may be really stupid to a lot of people reading the
list and I frequently know that. But a quick answer with a url or the
command that I need to get this problem done with, is greatly appreciated
and takes very little more time than "RTFM" or "STFW" when the responder
knows the answer. If you're going to give me an acronym rather than an
answer, please, don't bother.
Microsoft spends a lot of money appearing to be "friendly". Linux does not
have the same budget. If we want Linux to spread, we need to REALLY BE
FRIENDLY.
GREG: Thanks for the note about SLUG, I didn't know there was another list
out there.
Larry Collier
-----Original Message-----
From: aklug-bounce@aklug.org [mailto:aklug-bounce@aklug.org]On Behalf Of
Arthur Corliss
Sent: Monday, December 30, 2002 10:41 AM
To: Greg Jetter
Cc: aklug@aklug.org
Subject: Re: list description
Cripes, this thread won't go away, so let me try to end it.
Look, for all of you unhappy with how the list is configured, feel free to
blame me. I was one of the most vocal advocates of *not* having the list on
the default reply address, and I did so on the following premises:
1) Sometimes you want to reply and may include some personal dialogue
or off-topic stuff. In these cases it would be inappropriate to
reply to the list, and you shouldn't have to edit your To: line
to do so.
2) Many people have posted with a 'reply to me off list' type query.
Again, you shouldn't have to edit your To: line manually to do so.
3) It only takes one key stroke or mouse click to reply-to-all to
send a message to the list, but if the list is set as the default,
there's manual header editing required to get a private message
out. This applies to 99% of the e-mail clients out there.
4) Most people are quicker to hit the 'reply' button than the
'reply-to-all'
button, which means there's less likelihood of someone sending out
something inappropriate or offensive to everyone. This actually
keeps some of the flame wars off the list.
Now, these reasons would seem to me to make the list *more* user-friendly,
not
less.
At this point, I don't care what you people want to do with this list. Have
a
vote on it if you want to change it. If the majority likes it how it is,
then
just inform the new users how the list works. And let's take the
opportunity
to educate our new users on attention to detail. You should always examine
your address lines before sending something out. Ultimately, if you don't
know where your message is going, it's your fault, not anyone else's.
That said, if you want to privately call me a jackass, I've made it really
easy for you to do so: just click *reply* and flame away. . .
--Arthur Corliss
Bolverk's Lair -- http://arthur.corlissfamily.org/
Digital Mages -- http://www.digitalmages.com/
"Live Free or Die, the Only Way to Live" -- NH State Motto
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2a23 : Mon Dec 30 2002 - 13:31:35 AKST