RE: [OFF-TOPIC] Mailing List Netiquette
On Tue, Jan 09, 2007 at 11:37:30PM -0800, Justin Gallardo wrote:
> Hey All,
> I am preparing a presentation to a group of students on mailing list
> netiquette (as you may have guessed by the subject), and thought that
> maybe I could use the busiest mailing list I followed as a good source
> of information. I have thought of numerous things to bring up in the
> presentation including rules about top-posting(not doing it), tips to
> help keep the flow of conversation, and other various things. There
> was one thing that I wasn't quite sure what everyone's opinion was
> though. When replying to an email, is it proper to leave the original
> poster in the To: line of the email, and the CC the list? Or is it
> better to just send your reply to the list, not specifically
> mentioning the original poster. Possibly it is acceptable to just do
> whatever Reply All in your client gives you(I would think the effect
of this is configurable through the mailing list). I was curious if I
could get other's input on this matter.
> Also, if you can think of any other good points to bring up during
> this talk, I would love to hear them. The purpose of the talk is to
> help create better open source community members for the future. So
> any help now could possibly save you some heartache later :-).
Here's my list, in no particular order:
o post in plain text, not html, or "rich text"
o your signature should be 4 lines or less in length
o trim the comments of the OP removing that which is fluff (like their
signature).
o quote the original poster at the top, with your comments at the
bottom, or intermix, your comments with the OP, but don't comment first,
with the quote second.
o For on topic posts, reply only to the list, not the OP. For
off-topic posts, the OP may request replies off-list. In that case,
honor the request.
o stay on topic, for the list and the post.
o if you must be off-topic, denote such in the subject line.
o respect the members of the list, ie, don't flame. (When I read a
flame to another person, I too feel disrespected, even though I'm not
the target of the flame. The flamer has just "wasted" my time with
his/her garbage that I need to read/delete.)
o if the only thing you have to say is "me too", you don't have
anything to say.
Steve Belt
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