-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 [Originally, a new member of our community hijacked a thread to gain initial acccess]
eventually, "list cop" Patrick Shanahan wrote:
You cannot cut/paste? Do you know what threading is? I speak for myself, not the list, but you are cordially welcome.
which garnered replies like:
Then speak for yourself, and not to the list. Don't you ever give up? I second that vote, I'm getting tired of seeing his posts on the list playing the cop of the list. This is the type of stuff that you would espect from the redhat list not suse.
and I suppose I need to throw a "me too" posting in on this, and provide some (unasked for) "solutions" to keep the cops and the general populace happy. I'm on the OOo list as well, and in fact I had just read [and replied] to the thread there because it went something like this: Dennis posted an "I know this is OT, but can anyone tell me if this hardware will work w/SuSE?" query The response he got was simply [cut/paste] Please try the SuSE english mailing list. CPH [and I followed up with the signature block that this list adds, since the above doesn't give much of a clue where to start looking to find the list] However I presume that Dennis "went looking" and finding some hint of the list, did indeed "reply" to the first item he came to in order to "capture" the address [I've done that many a time myself] Rather than ignore an initial transgression [hey, the guy SAID he was new to the list] Patrick rolled out the "unwelcome" wagon and proceeded to thrash the positive helpful image this list has for people interested in linux. [you know what they say about "first impression", don't you?] My advice to you (Patrick) would be a modified "count to 10" approach 1) whenever you see someone do this, check to see if this is their absolute initial posting -- yes, go through the ENTIRE archive looking for a past post from this person [this should give you time to "cool off" from your insinct to "flame away"] 2) if you don't find any previous posts, chalk it up to someone using an insanely easy way to "capture" a list address rather than type it in by hand, or fiddle with "cut/paste" [after all, universal as it may seem, there may be some "clients" where cut/paste does NOT work -- if you're interested, I CAN give you an example] 3) if you do find another post, did the poster use the same client [yup, scan the HEADERS now] If they've changed e-mail clients, refer to item 2 :) 4) if you find that they've posted recently (or using the same client), take a look at how many threads they start by "hijacking" vs. manually started threads -- sure, it might be a sign of laziness on the part of the user, but that shouldn't be your concern -- after all, "hijacked" messages tend to be ignored by those that (a) religiously rely on threading, and (b) are quick to mark a thread as "ignored" if they are uninterested in the content [usually due to a flamewar breaking out, but I digress...] so "worst case", the "hijacker" won't get as many replies as they are expecting 5) if it seems like "only a few" threads are hijacked from time to time, it might be worthwhile to post PRIVATELY to that person and point out the facts I mentioned in item 4 (some people will ignore the thread -- you might get better results starting a new one completely) however BE POLITE in this message -- it will most likely be your first direct message to that person, so unless they recognize your name or e-mail from this list, it will makeTHE FIRST IMPRESSION of you on that other user. 6) If the user has constantly "hijacked" threads AND you've sent them a direct message letting them know that this "really isn't a good idea", THEN it is a good time to simply drop it -- after all, this list is unmoderated, which means that you are NOT the moderator and have little business DEMANDING that others post by certain rules [note, I'm making "suggestions" here, not "demanding" that you cease and desist ;) ] [sorry, can't think of any more steps to take to get this to "10" where it would be "alright" to publicly humiliate the transgressor, which generally starts a back-and-forth untrimmed TOFU dialog on the ignorance of the rules of "netiquette", and completely ignores the fact that hardware issues such as "which motherboard works well" with linux is a virtual non-issue nowadays ;)] - -- Yet another Blog: http://osnut.homelinux.net -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.7 (GNU/Linux) Comment: http://osnut.homelinux.net/TomEmerson.asc iD8DBQE+gfXbV/YHUqq2SwsRAiagAKC5wlAbS0TvpZqNhpPMbGAP+t/z9QCgqHJp E+uAMemnB7wMM5CtdNT5+es= =lj87 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----