On Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:51:52 +0100
mike scott increased personal carbon footprint by exciting electrons the
world over with these memorable words:
> 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.
I have them filtered to a seperate folder, but i still have to remember
to click "reply all" instead of just reply.
> 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!)
>
Sometimes thats just as well, as the thread can soon get off-topic. I
have also sometimes taken the opportunity to innitiate a discussion
about how we should answer such posts without posting to the OP - as i
did with this thread.
> 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.
>
Often we are dealing with newcomers to computing, some get OO.o
preloaded (although Microsoft have sucessfully combatted that with the
subscription version of Office preloaded for free). A mailing list is a
totally foreign idea to them. But emailing for help is easy.
Many modern companies use forums instead, but for some reason i loathe
the damn things.
--
Michael
All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall
be well
- Julian of Norwich 1342 - 1416
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
