On 21 Aug 2008 at 16:25, Michael Adams wrote:
...
> I'm really saying eighty to ninety percent or more of questioners may
> never aspire to, or having an interest in answering others questions.
> Asking them to subcribe to the list only freaks them out and causes a
> negative reaction when they start getting innundated with our medium
> volume list traffic.
But if they're not subscribed they'll quite likely miss the answer
they want. I for one find it very hard to remember to cc an
unsubscribed user (even though my mail client flags them up with a
red colour :-) ), and I know others do too. But for messages down a
thread the OP isn't the sender, doesn't get flagged - and indeed
isn't detectable as unsubscribed. So they don't see the followup that
has the answer they want:
from unsubbed OP: "the gizmo doesn't work" (to [EMAIL PROTECTED])
reply1: "please specify OS" (to [EMAIL PROTECTED], cc OP)
reply2:"here's the fix for all OS" (in response to reply1, so to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] only)
reply3: "an easier fix....." (in reply to reply2, to [EMAIL PROTECTED]; all
trace of the OP has gone by now!)
Sorry if that's laboured - it seems something easily overlooked and
rather important. As far as the OP's issue is concerned, replies 2
and 3 above were a waste of time - and all he's seen is an unhelpful
question ("what is this OS thing anyway?") but neither of the two
solutions.
I'm sure it's been said before, but quite probably unsubscribed users
should not be allowed to send to the list. Which isn't to say they
can't be helped - maybe they should get a /friendly/ automated
response telling them (1) where a good beginners' FAQ is located; (2)
a pointer to gmane; and (3) how to subscribe (and unsubscribe) if
they still need to.
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[EMAIL PROTECTED] Mike Scott, Harlow, Essex, England
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