Making the most of this mailing list.

M. Fioretti mfioretti at nexaima.net
Wed Jan 6 11:15:53 UTC 2010


On Wed, Jan 06, 2010 10:47:35 AM +0000, p.echols at comcast.net wrote:

> I am also not telling anyone that what I have to say are RULES that
> must be followed.  While the ideas below are about some of the same
> subjects, I am suggesting some purely selfish reasons why, at least
> in my opinion, these ideas will help a new user make the most of
> this list.

Excellent post, thanks. Just a couple of small comments meant with a
positive attitude, to reinforce your basic point and to stress how
great your post is.

1) with respect to this:

> consider deleting any quoted text that does not pertain to your next
> question

another reason why this is one of the most important points is
that... it makes most of the endless flamewars "top-vs-bottom-posting"
simply disappear. If everything, quoted text and answer, fits in the
first screenful... it will make much harder for everybody to complain
that they must scroll up or down to get the whole picture. Besides,
there are many people who don't have flat rate connectivity, including
mobile users. The more you trim, the less they download, the less THEY
pay. Show respect for their wallets and more of them will feel
inclined to help you.

2) This said, bottom posting is still recommended because many people
   read posts later on, in the archives. Bottom posting makes posts in
   the HTML archives look much more a quickly readable tutorial, thus
   contributing to reduce future list traffic.

There is only one thing missing in your list of suggestions: configure
your mail client to wrap text around ~70/80 columns. It makes much
more readable, much more quickly (=without horizontal scrolling) what
you write, both in many mail clients AND in the archives. As proof,
look what the original message looks like in the archives (you must
scroll a lot to read it):
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/2010-January/206610.html

Again, even this post of mine is written with this same spirit:

> #3 While this post discusses some of the "Rules" I am not trying to
> be a "net cop" Far from it, only suggesting why a self interested
> reader might find those rules to be a "Good Idea"

  Ciao,
		Marco
-- 
An Ubuntu success story in an unusual context:
http://stop.zona-m.net/node/68




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