I'm with you, Kevin. "mass abandonment of critical thinking skills and common sense", is right on target.
I'm an IT professional, and I can completely sympathize and appreciate all that Jean deals with. Thank You, ALL, for your largely thankless efforts. You provide such a valuable service to the Lilypond community in support of a very powerful and somewhat complex piece of software. Think how much something of this quality would cost in a commercial setting?! I think it'd be perfectly acceptable to auto-reply to non-members with a polite "Subscribe to post to this list" type of message. If you can't take the time to become a member of a list/community, then there should be no expectation that the community will take the time to respond to the request. -Jeff. :) On Wed, Feb 22, 2023 at 9:43 AM Kevin Cole <dc.l...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Tue, Feb 21, 2023 at 6:21 PM Andrew Bernard > <andrew.bern...@mailbox.org> wrote: > > > Dear me, mailing lists have been around for half as century or more. If > > people do not understand that it is normal to subscribe to a list to > > participate there's something wrong. > > This was my reaction as well. I think I'm finally "old", as I > increasingly feel that society as a whole is encouraging and abetting > mass abandonment of critical thinking skills and common sense, and the > shortening of attention spans. > > > Just reject the posts. That's very standard, and that is why the list > > software supports that option. > > Again, hear, hear. Admining a mailing list is a thankless job. Take > advantage of the tools that make it less painful. > > Some might complain that subscribing floods their inbox with posts > that are irrelevant. So, in other words, the admin and those who > subscribe are there to serve the whims of the non-subscribers and not > cause them any personal discomfort. Sorry, that's not the way > communities work. And most mailing list services offer a way to stem > the tide and mitigate the flood. If people cannot be bothered to read > the instructions telling them they need to subscribe, then clearly the > list isn't worth their precious time, and they can happily go on to > other "more important" things in their lives. A moderator / > administrator shouldn't need to be a babysitter or nanny. > > Eventually, people who post without subscribing, and get no response > should be able to figure out on their own that, perhaps, just maybe, > following the instructions might just improve the response rate, > > (On the other hand, I have a high tolerance for people who miss > something that the masses consider "obvious" in complex systems. So, > I've never been a fan of the ruder RTFM type responses. It does mean > that a lot of questions get asked over and over again, and the > temptation is great to say "Use a search engine, for god's sake!" But > saying that in a polite way is okay.) > > But I rant. ;-) > > -- *Jeff Kopmanis* Medium: https://kopmanis.medium.com GLAAC: https://www.glaac.org/ University Lowbrow Astronomers: http://umich.edu/~lowbrows Orange Can Astronomy: https://www.facebook.com/orangecanastronomy/ ** Go Green and leave this email on the Screen! **
