[ale] net etiquette question for ALE message board

[Lightner, Jeff]

Different lists do things differently.

For years I was on the Dutchworks HP-UX mailing list (R.I.P. - it was shutdown earlier this year).   They didn't want users replying to all - rather they wanted the replies to go only to the OP.  It was expected the OP would summarize the replies received, provide the solution (if any) and put his thanks to those who replied.

For this list - it's a bit more like the wild west with everyone shooting their *ahem* guns off as they please.   Often even hinting that there should be order to it elicits a major flame war.  :-)





-----Original Message-----
From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of David Tomaschik
Sent: Friday, October 14, 2011 5:13 PM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [ale] net etiquette question for ALE message board

On Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 4:50 PM, Ron Frazier
<atllinuxenthinfo at c3energy.com> wrote:
> Hi Guys,
>
> I'm sort of back to the computer after my incident with the wild lounge
> chair.  If you don't know what that's about, see my "This computer is
> killing me" thread.  After 3 chiropractic visits and several stretching
> exercises, I feel almost human again.
>
> Actually, I have to get off the email and start doing some other tasks.
>
> I have a few messages queued up that I need to reply to, like my last
> few posts, but I may be a little while getting to them.
>
> I want to say, for the past, present, and future, that I always
> appreciate any replies you send to my messages.
>
> That brings up a minor etiquette question.  Say I post message A and
> someone replies with message B.  Let's say that grammatically and
> syntactically, message B doesn't really need another reply from me.
> Suppose it's mostly informational.  Is it expected that I reply to it,
> and every message, anyway just to say thanks and acknowledge the info?
> I guess it's easier for me to know when to start conversations than to
> end them, if that makes any sense.

In my opinion, no.  While that might be most polite to the person who
posted the message (or might not, depending on their perspective), I
think that messages just to say "thanks, that was informative" or
similar are unnecessary chatter that add to the background noise level
on the ALE mailing list.

At the ALE-NW meeting last night, at least one person stated that they
did not subscribe to the list because of the volume of messages each
day.  Adding to the noise floor obviously won't make that any better,
and it makes it (potentially) harder to notice more substantive posts
in the thread.

That being said, if a message contained information you find
particularly relevant or helpful, that might be worth acknowledging.
Your acknowledgement of something THAT GOOD helps to highlight the
"premium" content of the thread.  For example, saying "thanks, that
fixed it" lets everyone know what post contained the full fix to your
original problem.  Likewise, a response of "thanks for the link, it's
a great resource for foobar" helps to highlight the resource that was
suggested.

Again, just my thoughts.

>
> As I said, I always appreciate all replies.  Just figured I'd see what
> you all think.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ron




--
David Tomaschik, RHCE, LPIC-1
System Administrator/Open Source Advocate
OpenPGP: 0x5DEA789B
http://systemoverlord.com
david at systemoverlord.com

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