[SLUG] Re: the golden rule of discussion can go to hell Bryan J smith

From: Bryan J. Smith (b.j.smith@ieee.org)
Date: Sat Nov 06 2004 - 20:16:10 EST


On Sat, 2004-11-06 at 19:32, chris lee wrote:
> its slightly annoying.
> i just ignore the other posts that dont follow topic.

GMail is beta, and it's missing a lot of features that many other sites
have. It's amazing, we are 20+ years into mail readers, and select
features that us "old timers" are used to seem to be gone.

I get lectured regularly in corporate environments for "bottom posting,"
because they are only used to Outlook at its default "top posting." I
remember one supervisor lectured me on "I've never seen anyone do
that." I politely told him about the development of e-mail, and how
Microsoft introduced changes in the late '90s in how e-mail was
approached before then.

But in the end, I follow the Golden Rule. In the case of e-mail lists,
if a majority wants me to do something, I will do it. In the case of
changing the subject, I append where it is appropriate for archiving or
slight changes of subject. I only _append_ to the subject, so it still
sorts by subject well. I also the WAS tag and change the subject when
it changes significantly, which is very highly recommended by just about
any guidelines (including ESR's).

My approach is based on the decade-old O'Reilly Discussion Guidelines (I
haven't been able to locate a copy in a long time). They are also based
on _extensive_ discussions with the officers in LEAP. But as most LEAP
officers told me, people complain typically because the problem isn't
about posting format ... but something else that bothers them.

I get thanx daily from people who find my posts in an archive. Several
specifically point out that they would have gone nuts in the 20+ posts
of a thread, had it not been for my appending of the subject. Many
people explicitly state they went right for my follow-up with the
append, because it hinted at the answer they were looking for.

Now, with that out of the way, if you have a problem with me, air it.
If you "just don't like me," then just say it. I have no ego to bruise.

-- 
Bryan J. Smith                                  b.j.smith@ieee.org 
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