On Tue, 22 Jul 2003, Stan Brown grumbled:
> Torsten Franz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >Sorry for cross-posting.
>
> (shakes head in wonder)
> Then why do it?
>
< snip >
> Either way, I just don't understand the logic. Could someone explain
> this to me?
(1) Other contributors to list-serves use the expression, frequently
enough to be noticed and remembered; therefore (one might reason, quite
understandably, and especially if one's native language is not English)
it is appropriate and sometimes expected. Furthermore, it appears to be
a mild courtesy, and therefore is probably a Good Thing.
(2) Like many commonly used expressions, it has sort of condensed with
time and use from its original (so I presume) more complete form to an
elided (or shorthand) form. I perceive the underlying intended
communication to be something like:
"I am aware that cross-posting implies that those of you who are on
more than one of the lists (to which I am posting this message) will
receive more than one copy of it. I regret the inconvenience, but I
really wish to communicate with all of you."
(Aside: Which might be because I am unsure, if I'm looking for help,
where help is most likely to be found; or because, if I have something
to contribute, I want it known in more than one milieu.)
As regards inconvenience, it's much like the inconvenience that I
engender when I include the querent's ID as a Cc: in replying to a list
item. I am aware that the querent will receive two copies (one directly
from me, one via the list-serve), but (a) the <DELETE> key is easy to
find and (b) for mailers that report the "Cc:" line, other members of
the list can see whose note I am replying to, even if their mailers
otherwise delete that identification and supply "you wrote" instead of
the more informative "John Smith wrote".
(Stan and I have had THIS conversation before. ;-)
As regards courtesy, I've known people to grumble about the locution
"Have a nice day", nowadays commonly encountered ubiquitously (although
not, I think, before about 1970), on the grounds that it looks like a
command ("Have a nice day, confound it!!") and the speaker is almost
never in a position to provide the "nice day". This one I interpret as
an elision from a more elegant form of an ordinary courtesy:
"Thank you for our conversation (or, in a commercial establishment,
for the business you've brought to us). May the rest of your day be
pleasant (or profitable, etc.)."
Somewhat like the ancient Irish benediction, which includes the clause
"May the road rise up to meet you" (intending to mean, may your way be
easy and pleasant). If you think about the surface features of THAT one
too much, you might really rather prefer that the road didn't rise up to
meet you (Ouch!).
All that having been said, I've observed that often (and in Torsten's
case in particular) there is no indication, apart from the locution in
question, that an item IS cross-posted. (They used to come with two or
more list-serves in the "To:" or the "Cc:" field, or with a list-serve
and a newsgroup. Maybe the multiples are being filtered out somewhere
now...
Ciao! -- Don Burrill.
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Donald F. Burrill [EMAIL PROTECTED]
56 Sebbins Pond Drive, Bedford, NH 03110 (603) 626-0816
.
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