[Techtalk] private replies/ list replies

Tracey grrliegeek at elenari.net
Sun Jun 6 20:02:59 EST 2004


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On Sunday 06 June 2004 12:08 pm, Carla Schroder thought we should read 
this (replying to Devdas):
> It's trivial to configure a mail client, or to actually pay
> attention to where your message is addressed before hitting 'send.'

I have to agree with this. When I send mail, *I* am the one 
responsible for deciding where it goes. 

> > > all the smart people who share their knowledge- but why the
> > > private posts? Isn't a public discussion the point of using a
> > > list?
> >
> > Not necessarily.

On the other hand, if I have a similar problem now or in the future, I 
lose out on whatever technical discussion and solution might happen. 
Therefore, part of my reason for being on the list (and probably 
others) - learning how to handle various thing with Linux - is not 
being fulfilled.  And as Carla pointed out, we have an archive which 
is valuable for learning & solving problems in the future. Without 
onlist replies, this is *only* a helpdesk. Sorry, I do that at work. 
I'm not wanting to just play helpdesk on the list. And really, we 
don't operate on the one technie to one problem model, nor should we 
IMO.

If I have a technical question / problem I want people to reply 
on-list for a few reasons not yet mentioned, in addition to the ones 
mentioned.
1 - Someone might mention something that a second person is 
knowledgeable about and can provide additional insight on. If they 
don't see the reply, they won't speak up.
2 - 15 near-identical private replies are not very helpful, and only 
clog my inbox. If the replies were onlist, it would be obvious to a 
writer that what they were about to write has already been written. 
This saves everyone time and work.

> > A list is a good way to get in contact with 
> > knowledgable people, of which a subset will find your problem
> > interesting and you only deal with that subset about that
> > problem.

That's valid. This can happen on-list. I don't find it a big deal to 
delete thread that I am not interested in.

> If I want to engage someone in a private discussion, I will contact
> them privately.

Ditto.

- -- 
Tracey C
Beware the man of one book - Latin Proverb
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