You can argue policy back and forth until the list is sick. Policy is for people who like to debate. The fact remains that policy _never_ works because people _disagree_. Not only that, but people use it as a way to "get back" at someone they dislike. God knows here in the US, we have some great ones -- "School Prayer", "Flag Burning," etc... that people want to legislate to death. The whole reason for such alleged "policy" -- the student, the teacher, the citizen, the soldier, etc... -- actually get _lost_ in that debate. And then you just have a lot politicans, lawyers and media people telling us what we want -- without bothering to ask those people they say they speak for. ;-> Now I try to take stuff to OT, or I at least try to answer a Linux question in there and move the OT to a "P.S." or something. But I flounder and response on-list all-the-time. It happens. I'm sure I'm not a good example of "the best policy" either. I fully admit that, and that's why I often stop posting on-list for awhile and just help people off-list. Wwe can individually decide to respond and join the 5-6 people who respond when something is OT, or we can ignore it, or we can drop a blurb that we're answering it on the OT list or just answer it on the OT without a blurb. In any case, the more noise about it here doesn't do anything. Meta-discussions tend to be self-perpetuating and tangent well away from the original course. That also is a given. But when all else fails, Golden Rule is the best individual policy. Think of how you might want to be treated if you "honestly screwed up" when you respond (or decide not to) to someone, regardless of what you think the "intent" of the original person is. I personally _never_ argue policy, but I try to follow the general views of the list. Unfortunately, some people just don't care what your intentions are, and trying to please everyone often _fails_ miserably. So some things are better let go instead of being argued about on the list. Especially things like policy, because it's often a self-perpetuating meta-discussion in itself. One I just hypocritically added to myself just now. ;-> But I promise this will be my only post on (yeah right!). -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, technical annoyance mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com ---------------------------------------------------------- The existence of Linux has far more to do with the breakup of AT&T's monopoly than anything Microsoft has ever done. -- Check the headers for your unsubscription address For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com