Hi Rievelders,
Although I have gone in the past years a long away from
daily "rietvelding", from
time to time I can't resist my temptation to comment on some posts (OK,
if the cap fits ... :-) and some of the comments could be well called
snarky.
But if you read that someone i) in facts asks people to solve
his problem ASAP, or ii) a beginner without knowledge of elementary
crystallography tries to refine ADP of a cubic special position, because a
SW permits and complains about matrix problems, or iii) someone attempts
quantitative standardless phase analysis of mixtures of disordered minerals
whose structures are at maximum just estimated ... etc., etc.. All right,
you may accuse me of going too far, or of exaggerating but isn't it at least
half true ?
If it is a PhD student I always ask where's his/her supervisor ?
We could also ask the companies who claim that perfect (and I simply must
add here : though physically
or statistically impossible - not to speak of common sense ... ) results
can
be easily achieved when their SW is applied. Should we tell them or better
not as are we afraid ( I am not, I do not apply :-) of loosing their
sponsorships ?
Best,
Lubo
On Sun, 10 May 2015, Kurt Leinenweber wrote:
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] On Behalf
Of Darren Broom
Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2015 3:36 AM
To: Alan Hewat; Leopoldo Suescun
Cc: 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
Sent: Sat, 9 May 2015 11:39:46 +0200
To: 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 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> +33.476.98.41.68
http://www.NeutronOptics.com/hewat
______________________________________________
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Send commands to <lists...@ill.fr> eg: HELP as the subject with no body text
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