On Thursday, May 04, 2006 @ 8:38 PM, Paul W. Abrahams wrote:
On Thursday 04 May 2006 7:03 pm, Ken Schneider wrote:
These "rules" as they are called were in place long before you (or I, and I have been a member since around 1998-99) joined the list and have served to help cut down on some of the posts to the list. Since this list has thousands of people subscribed to it and can generate over 200 emails a day every little bit helps. And yes there are still people on this list that are -forced- to use metered dial-up so <snipping> out parts you are not answering and -not- using html does help their online bill from getting overly large. So, you have two choices - either accept the ways of this list or leave the list and start your own with your own rules.
The reality is that there's a core community of regular members and a far larger group of occasional and short-term members.
You can't really expect those in that larger group to do much beyond follow the rules of common sense.
Say what? When I joined, the message I got welcoming me to the group directed me to the list of rules for the group. Not sure how one gets from there to a rule of just following common sense.
And then there are those who get trapped in the group and can't figure out how to escape.
Trapped? Like one day they woke up and they were suddenly getting email from this user group and had no idea why?
Since almost all of them are very short-term or even one-time visitors, they certainly won't know the rules, let alone know what it takes
to unsubscribe. As they struggle to escape the web, they generate a flurry
of posts, many of the form "you should know that". And like a spider web, this trap usually has visitors.
Wow, I hadn't realized how insidious this list was before now.
Paul
Greg Wallace