I looked at this, thought that this was a nice admonition, worth listening to, and interpreted it to mean that the first sentence of a new thread should be a question rather than an introductory sentence. This seemed peculiar to me, but, thought I, this is a German list and perhaps an initial question is part of the local notion of ordnung. So I resolved to start any future post with a question.
So I posted another question and got really nasty replies about, as one of them spelled it, "highjacking" threads. Since then I have read about related topics in the archives.
One of the policepersons says that hijacking threads is like "farting in an elevator", which is nonsense. No decent person, anywhere, would fart in an elevator. It is more like this: once about 25 years ago I was in backwoods Africa and I visited a village where everyone was cordial and welcoming. I was led to the village hearth to greet the ancestors and drink sour milk from the sacred cattle lineage. When everyone sat down, I did too, but I sat in the chair of the village owner, who had been dead 8 months but whose spirit occupied the chair and was present at the fire. This was a big faux pas. People who had been to school were amused, and they took me aside to explain about the dead guy's chair. The local yokels, meantime, were horrified and appalled. Bad things would happen to the village because of the violation! Outrage!
It is unfortunate that people will give you a lecture and not help you with the question. I have personally seen more of this here recently.
All ths is not inconsequential for SuSE. My response to the flames I received was to reason that none of us need this and to go buy a number of RedHat Professional boxes to update our laboratory group's machines from SuSE 8.1. The cost of each was more than twice the cost of the "upgrade" to SuSE 8.2 (a full release as far as I can see), but since it was not out of my pocket and since support is important, reasoned I, it was the rational course.
I am sure that I am not the only one. In my browsing I remember a post from a Mr. Dennis Nigbur, who got the full flame treatment. He was clearly a linux user, but after what he got from this list he will certainly not be buying from SuSE again.
So I brought the RedHat DVD home to blow SuSE 8.2 away from my home machines. Then, I paused, recalling the pleasure of reading Miller's posts about Microsoft and recalling my gratitude for Mr. Ogley's updates to gnome packages. I decided to post this harangue first.
Henry Harpending
The threading issue IMHO has been beat to death. I now have my mail reader program using threads and I can see how it can be very helpful. I also can see how they can get upset when the flow of the thread gets interrupted. But the individual that asked very nicely for you to start a new thread was the correct way to do it. If indeed you posted a new question which will start a new thread, then you have nothing to worry about. I guess that these "policepersons" as you describe them should definately read the morale story of the boy and the fence. Like others have stated there are a few people who make life rough but the others that show respect and try and assist are the ones that make it worth while. I hope that you will still use SuSE but I can understand your decision. -- Marshall "Nothing is impossible, we just do not have all the anwsers to make the impossible, possible."