Hi Darren, That’s a very good point and clarification.
- Kurt From: Darren Broom [mailto:darrenbr...@inbox.com] Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2015 6:54 AM To: rietveld_l@ill.fr Cc: Kurt Leinenweber Subject: RE: Apologies... The "No Attachment" rule. Hi Kurt Maybe I should let others comment first but I would just like to say that I think a slightly harsh comment to an experienced person who has made a silly mistake is quite different to an abrupt and perhaps patronizing comment to a complete beginner who has asked a legitimate question. I have checked back and it was definitely the latter that Bill Reese was commenting on previously... Cheers, Darren -----Original Message----- From: ku...@asu.edu<mailto:ku...@asu.edu> Sent: Sun, 10 May 2015 13:26:28 +0000 To: rietveld_l@ill.fr<mailto:rietveld_l@ill.fr> Subject: RE: Apologies... The "No Attachment" rule. Hi, The subject of snarky comments is a fascinating one. I have definitely been the recipient of snarky comments for some of my more stupid posts on this list. The good thing about them is that it lets you know that you are saying or doing something, crystallographically speaking, that is really unpalatable to someone out there, and you might need to know this for your own good. I have definitely been chastised and have learned some things over the years by being forced to read a snarky response to one of my posts. But on the other hand, to a beginner a snarky comment can be damaging. However, these comments are not confined to mailing lists – they happen at conferences too and they are just part of the fabric of science. As long as the whole list does not descend into a chaos of snarky comments, I think it’s OK to let them get through. One possible remedy is for others to come to the defence of a victim of excessive snarkiness. I have seen that happen on this list sometimes, and other times have been tempted myself to intervene, though I usually have not been brave enough (especially when the snark source is someone famous). - Kurt From: rietveld_l-requ...@ill.fr<mailto:rietveld_l-requ...@ill.fr> [mailto:rietveld_l-requ...@ill.fr] On Behalf Of Darren Broom Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2015 3:36 AM To: Alan Hewat; Leopoldo Suescun Cc: rietveld_l@ill.fr<mailto:rietveld_l@ill.fr> Subject: RE: Apologies... The "No Attachment" rule. Hi Alan Thanks for the explanation. The point about the archive seems to me to be the most persuasive - I see what you mean. Providing the file sharing links stay active that does ensure the archive remains useful without having to "host" additional files on the archive server. It does seem that removing any attachments automatically would be the best solution. Hopefully Song Zhen's suggestion will help sort that out. Incidentally, Jon nicely illustrated one of the things about the list that I really appreciate, by posting an interesting link that I hadn't seen before and probably wouldn't have come across otherwise. Also, I wondered if you could set up SYMPA so that it strips emails of any unnecessary snarkiness (above a predefined threshold)? Best regards, Darren -----Original Message----- From: alan.he...@neutronoptics.com<mailto:alan.he...@neutronoptics.com> Sent: Sat, 9 May 2015 11:39:46 +0200 To: leopo...@fq.edu.uy<mailto:leopo...@fq.edu.uy> Subject: Apologies... The "No Attachment" rule. Dear Rietveld list. Good to see so many people asking for the list to be continued. And even an example of an interesting scientific question immediately answered by an expert. Encouraging. So why do I forbid "sinful" attachments ? (No, it's not because I'm getting old and snarky, though we all do eventually :-) Think of the Rietveld list as a kind of relaxed "Twitter", except that you are not limited to 140 characters. And what about Google's decision this month to favour sites that can be used on a mobile phone ? Yes, even oldies use mobile phones for email. SMS is another example of beauty in brevity. Then the Rietveld Archive is an excellent record of past discussions - without the attachments. Messages that rely on attachments are then often incomprehensible - look up that message on https://www.mail-archive.com/rietveld_l@ill.fr/ Frankly, if you need more than that, put it on a webserver with a link to it. Such links are preserved in the archive. If you see my own warning about "no attachments" as an attachment :-) perhaps you should check how your email client is set up. Or tell me how I can do it differently with SYMPA www.sympa.org<http://www.sympa.org> I didn't design the mail server nor the mail archive. Clearly, it is difficult to enforce a simple "no attachments" rule, so what would it be like policing a "small attachments" rule ? Even if you personally have lots of space for email, our webserver (for which we don't pay) would still have to distribute ~1500 copies of your "small attachment". In this particular case, a figure from an unpublished paper was published and criticised out of context. Is that really fair? If it's from a referee's copy we shouldn't even refer to it, let alone publish it. If it's a pre-print, just publish a link to it. But there are already plenty of examples in the published literature if you are looking for evidence of regression. So where are the "Apologies"? There are none :-) "Excuse me" is what people say when they elbow their way through a crowd. (I only do that when I really need to). So if you really need to attach a document, go ahead. After all, you can still read the list on the archive. Alan ______________________________________________ Dr Alan Hewat, NeutronOptics, Grenoble, FRANCE <alan.he...@neutronoptics.com<mailto:alan.he...@neutronoptics.com>> +33.476.98.41.68 http://www.NeutronOptics.com/hewat ______________________________________________
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Please do NOT attach files to the whole list <alan.he...@neutronoptics.com> Send commands to <lists...@ill.fr> eg: HELP as the subject with no body text The Rietveld_L list archive is on http://www.mail-archive.com/rietveld_l@ill.fr/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
