Path: utzoo!censor!dybbuk!yunexus!ists!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!shadooby!samsung!usc!apple!chuq
From: chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: Posting questions to newsgroup you refuse to read - poor etiquette?
Message-ID: <36732@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 22 Nov 89 20:03:42 GMT
References: <1989Nov22.195020.805@algor2.algorists.com>
Organization: Life is just a Fantasy novel played for keeps
Lines: 38

>From a article in comp.lang.c (no need to identify which):

>> Please mail replys to one of the addresses below - I can no longer
>> afford the time to wade through all of comp.lang.c.

>I see this sort of thing all the time and it irritates me terribly.
>This person finds the bandwidth in comp.lang.c too much, but adds to
>it in a way that benefits nobody but himself.

>Do others feel this to be a breach of etiquette?

>I think a proper response is to send E-mail to posters like this
>saying these postings occupy that same bandwidth they already find
>intolerably crowded, contribute nothing and should not be made.

It is definitely a breach of etiquette, because most of the time the answer
has usually been covered recently and if they'd bothered to read the group
they would have already had it. 

I also feel that a group is a cooperative thing -- you take some things out,
you put some things back in. If you don't read the group, you don't
contribute -- so why should I bother to help?

My answer to requests like this is really simple: silence, even if I have
the answer. I don't bother sending mail to these folks, because I don't feel
like wasting my time, and generally I've found they don't care, so I'm
sending email into a void.

If you don't like what someone is doing, then don't encourage it. I don't
think you need to yell at them -- silence is sometimes louder than words.


-- 

Chuq Von Rospach   <+>    Editor,OtherRealms    <+>   Member SFWA/ASFA
chuq@apple.com   <+>   CI$: 73317,635   <+>   [This is myself speaking]

All it takes is one thorn to make you forget the dozens of roses on the bush.