Subject: List Description Thoughts & Happy New Year
From: Tim Johnson (tim@johnsons-web.com)
Date: Tue Dec 31 2002 - 16:01:33 AKST
I don't want to comment directly on the thread about
"list descriptions" - but I want to make some general
comments:
If it weren't for mailing lists, (I subscribe to about 15 of
them) my business would have failed. I find them an enormous
asset. I've also learned to accept that various mailing lists
and newsgroups all seem to have their own personalities.
With some, one has to be *very* careful of how you
present yourself or you "will" get scolded if not
flamed. I've had to bite my tongue more than once.
I'm personally acquainted with a very knowledgeable person
who has a lot of influence over several mailing lists and
pretty much sets the tone for them. And it's a tone that
I describe above.
He and I have corresponded for years and sometimes on
fairly personal subjects. He has confided to me that
he isn't very well off economically and doesn't have a job.
Yet the mailing lists that he has set up are -
while having a lot of valuable information -
have a 'culture' that is quite frankly, often extremely
unforgiving of the newbie and even the "season mailer"
like me who might have not phrased an inquiry properly.
It seems to me that had this person set a tone that
was as amenable as say, the python or rebol mailing
lists, that some IT company might approached him with
a lucrative offer as a Service Rep Manager or something
like the almost 6-figure income that one of my daughters
has.
Courtesy and tact sells.
I look forward to a New Year in which Linux is embraced
as "everyman's" system and not just for geeks any more!
Regards
--
Tim Johnson <tim@johnsons-web.com>
http://www.alaska-internet-solutions.com
http://www.johnsons-web.com
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2a23 : Tue Dec 31 2002 - 20:44:01 AKST