Tim wrote:
On Sat, 2006-12-30 at 17:58 -0600, Aaron Konstam wrote:
I hope this is not the Tim who makes it clear that he is not reachable
through his return address. Someday I need to share my rant about
people who have unlisted telephone numbers.
That would be me. But I am not "uncontactable". I can be reached on
the list. I don't really expect personal mail on here, but on the rare
chance someone wants a personal response from me, they can request it.
I have conversed with some people directly, in the past. Though there'd
have to be a good reason for me to want to respond, that way.
My own, and other's, past experiences have shown, however, that many who
send private mail to list members only do so to get away with behaving
in a manner that they wouldn't dare do so in front of an audience. I
tend to reply to such messages back on the list, with full quoting.
Those who know me outside of mailing lists have no problems contacting
me. I am listed in phone directories, and other internet places. And
with a modicum of effort, it's usually not to hard to work out who
someone is on a mailing list, even when they use it semi-anonymously.
I don't list personal contact details in list mail, because there is no
way to avoid it being harvested. At least if it's only provided
directly to someone, there's less chance of abuse. Temporary addresses
can be created too, should someone have a pressing need to work through
something.
I understand your point about unlisted numbers, I've struck that myself.
And that's the sort of point I was making about Robert being impossible
to contact.
Fair enough if he doesn't want strangers off the list contacting him, I
feel the same. But to filter out *all* mail from anywhere other than
some predefined sources is madness. You won't know to unblock someone
that you'd want to be able to reach you. They've no way of arranging
it.
I only take that ruthless approach with the mailing list, by posting
from another address. My other contact methods aren't over zealously
guarded.
Having ignored your unsolicited opinion, I must report that it certainly
is nice to be able to tell at a glance when someone sends me a REAL
email. Plucking the names from my Inbox was only an exercise in piped
grep, sed, tr, sort and awk commands.
You might do well to give a bit of thought your choice of words. There
is always a chance that there is someone, somewhere whose lifestyle does
not fit your pattern, yet who is not a raving madman!
I suppose that if I was a boy/young man, I would probably want to leave
the door open to any new acquaintances. That's the way my
great-granddaughters operate and looking back, I probably did too. But
the fact is, I'm a lot more interested these days in whether friends
I've made over years are still on the green side of the grass and what
kind of aches they have today and how their offspring are doing.
So, as of 0246 UDT yesterday I am allowing mail from my banks, mailing
lists, personal friends and some on-line acquaintances -- about 100 or
so addresses in all -- to accumulate on this machine. I don't need the
other crap.
