Replying to digests Was: Re: community Digest, Vol 36, Issue 48

Knight Walker moko at kobran.org
Fri Jul 20 00:33:54 CEST 2007


On Thu, Jul 19, 2007 at 05:44:29PM -0400, Jon Radel wrote:
> [Entire digest that has nothing at all to do with the above that both
> you sent out again removed.]
> 
> Spam the whole mailing list?  Ah, at least you're forthright and know
> yourself well...
> 
> Ever occur to you two forum fans that the mailing list would work better
> if you used it right?  Little matters such as:
> 
> * If you're starting a new discussion thread, don't reply to an existing
> e-mail; it throws off the people who use thread-aware MUAs.
> 
> * If you're replying to something in a digest cut out all the stuff
> you're not replying to and fix up the subject line.
> 
> * TRIM!
> 
> * TRIM SOME MORE!
> 
> * If you're sending a "Me Too" reply, TRIM YET SOME MORE!
> 
> (See Mathew Davis's follow up for a beautiful example of trimming. :-)

I agree. My main problem with a forum is that all the ones I've have
serious deficiencies, the biggest one being that it's really easy to lose
new messages if you don't dedicate a block of time to reading all new
messages (Sometimes in just one forum, sometimes site-wide). I have yet
to see a forum software that doesn't mark them all read if you have an
emergency in the middle and have to come back later. For some people
that's fine, but I prefer that my e-mail box stores a flag in each
message and lets me read on my own time.

As for the rest, I concur. Good netiquette goes a long way. Too bad it's
a dying art.

-KW




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