Jim Cornette wrote:
I hate to see someone repelled by a particular neverending thread. I can understand why the subject is repelling listers from contributing, since it floods their mailboxes and distracts from concentrating on asking for help or trying to give help related to Fedora usage or overcoming problems with current public releases.
Now back to our program.
Jim:
You are so right, but a ton of bandwidth has been wasted trying to enforce 'rules' that are not stated. All I want is to get a good set of community driven guidelines that state how we should interrelate in the list.
After being exposed to inline replies and also with replies to the bottom of the messages on this list, I do think that it is easier to follow threads and know what was being discussed.
My objection is mainly due to the discussion continuing for as far back as I can remember. There is never going to be conformance to any type of rigid policy. Rehashing the subject over and over will just lead to people feeling that enough is enough. Jdow, who was on the fedora lists for as far back as I can remember is a good example. I am bothered by the rehashing of the subject repeatadly also and usually only delete the threads and continue on scanning for topics where I might be able to trigger one in the right direction, learn from their insight or just be entertained by a post that is enlightening that breaks up the normal dry postings on the list. Most are informative, but some are rather dry or repetative in nature.
I was 'pounded' by folks that insisted that I 'bottom post' when I
belong to three professional lists that insist on the opposite. When I was confronted with this, I asked where this was "in writing". The replies I got were, this is custom but is not a written rule. So, I decided, as an ex-FidoNet list moderator, to take on the task of putting our community guidelines in writing and present them to our Red Hat benefactors so that folks who are new to the list integrate quickly.
A briefing message when one signs up to the list that is informative of what the list objective is, which is pretty well covered in the list name might be alright. I don't see this concept happening, since the list manager probably has to worry more about technical issues, rather than what format of posting is considered better than another type.
The best solution would probably be to add a link to a website that has these proposed rules rearding html postings and bottom posting described within it. Adding a link that already has such guidlines might be acceptable also. The only thing is that I even don't read netiquite proposals myself. I just post as I prefer to and the way that it seems will best get the message across to the intended recepients.
Also, I have lived in several foreign countries where failure to follow the customs of that country could result at a minimum in a very public tongue lashing to spending time in prison (it is against the law to tip a taxi driver in Japan.)
There are bound to be al sorts of hard to believe laws worldwide. We stil have very outdated laws on our books that are far behind being applicable today. Anyway, hopefully top-posting does not become outlawed with the same penalty that inside trading entails. We can hope we did not elect representatives with this type of mindset within our borders.
In any case, the ultimate goal is to not have to publish the guidelines but to have Red Hat do this. And guidelines are changeable based upon the consensus of the group.
I really believe that redhat needs to keep involved in technical issues, like spam, viruses or posts that are spoofs originating from other than the person that actually uses the particular mailing address.
Good luck with your venture. I think that it is excellent that redhat provides the avenue where we can converse in a public mailing list. I don't think that I would request Red Hat to be bothered with list posting preferences though.
I appreciate having the chance to learn from other Fedora users and help where I can. I am still sort of a person who does not like to be put into a mold for how I would post a message or do any other thing in my everyday life. I just think we all need a break from never dying threads. I have seen postings that I could not help with, since I don't know much about the issues. They might be answered if less discussion time was dedicated to how one should post. I do not see any value in some sort of "this is what I want, so you better post that way" sort of guidlines. I don't consider these ideals as rules, they are simply guidlines, the world will not end because someone top posted or sent through an html formatted message. Now if an rtf formatted message comes through, this is one that I would consider improper and unreadable from my operating system tools or programs.
Jim -- the printer thinks its a router.
