Date:	Wed, 10 May 1995 10:04:46 -0400
To:	djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu
From:	gantose AT lerc DOT nasa DOT gov (Dave Gantose)
Subject:	Re: Header re-writing

Mark A. Hull-Richter wrote:
>STOP REPLYING TO THE LIST!
>
>Most of the messages sent to this list are requests for assistance on a
>specific problem - these do NOT REPEAT NOT require responses to the list.

I would like to respectfully disagree. I understand that, for some, many of
the posted messages are just irritating additional traffic. But, I
subscribed to this list to witness, as well as participate in, discussions
of problems/techniques/solutions relating to DJGPP. Sometimes, my own
question has been answered (or the question itself clarified), without my
having to post at all, just by reading the questions/responses of other people.

And relying on the original poster to provide a summary of responses would
not necessarily result in the same benefit because:

1) The poster might not do it, for one reason or another. As insurance then,
more people might feel inclined to post bothersome "me, too" messages to be
sure they could partake of the responded wisdom.

2) The poster might not be able to do it in a timely fashion. For example,
if the responses are "try this", or "try that", or "how about...", the
poster might need to spend time working out an actual solution before
feeling ready to post a summary of what was suggested, what worked, what didn't.

3) It is not necessarily the actual substance of a message, but sometimes a
person's implied assumption, or turn-of-a-phrase, or "Oh, by the way..."
comment that turns on the light bulb over my head. And these would be lost
in a summary. 

That being said, I can see that it is important to have an easy way to
separate mail list messages from one's personal email; I can see that it
would be good to exercise restraint and judgement in one's postings, with
regards to volume, distribution, and (lack of) substance; I can see that the
list could get out of hand. I just don't think there's a problem at the
present time, so I guess I say "leave it be."

(This isn't an overly emotional subject for me, and I could probably be
convinced either way by a good argument. But it seems that there's been a
call for discussion here, so I've offered my position.)


=============================================================================
Dave Gantose
ADF, Inc.
2001 Aerospace Pkwy.           phone: (216)977-1376
Brook Park, OH  44142          email: Gantose AT lerc DOT nasa DOT gov

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