Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!usc!bbn!drilex!dricejb
From: dricejb@drilex.UUCP (Craig Jackson drilex1)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: Posting questions to newsgroup you refuse to read - poor etiquette?
Message-ID: <6335@drilex.UUCP>
Date: 23 Nov 89 20:07:41 GMT
References: <1989Nov22.195020.805@algor2.algorists.com> <36732@apple.Apple.COM>
Reply-To: dricejb@drilex.UUCP (Craig Jackson drilex1)
Organization: DRI/McGraw-Hill, Lexington, MA
Lines: 52

In article <36732@apple.Apple.COM> chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) writes:
 >>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]

How about: "Please mail replies because I'm hopelessly behind in this group,
and if you reply by posting without mailing also there's a fair chance
your article will expire before I get a chance to read it."?

I believe that Usenet is a give-and-take, surely.  However, most sites are
now expiring sooner and sooner.  This means that many readers only get
a sample of the discussion, not the entire text.

There's a similar problem with offers-to-summarize.  Producing a good
summary isn't easy, and may not seem worthwhile if you haven't gotten
much new information.  One thing on the net that really annoys me is
when a 'summary' turns out to be a copy of the mailbox file, complete
with 'Received' headers and totally worthless messages.
-- 
Craig Jackson
dricejb@drilex.dri.mgh.com
{bbn,ll-xn,axiom,redsox,atexnet,ka3ovk}!drilex!{dricej,dricejb}