Re: OT: Bush quotes
On Thursday 05 February 2009 15:22:44 Steve Kemp wrote:
> Alternatively we could just have a free-for-all and let everybody
> post about anything they want, and the people that spend their
> spare time reading Debian lists willing to offer help to strangers
> will just get bored and stop doing so.
>
> The latter is the situation people are trying to prevent when
> they suggest off-topic posting is fine for a little while, but
> does need to be nipped in the bud at times.
Big +1. I subscribe to a few mailing lists, a few newsgroups, and idle in a
number of irc channels. A lot of people mistakenly think it's okay to take
these resources off-topic when things are slow, but I have to say: it's much
easier to participate actively in a group conversation when the background
noise is low.
It may *seem* harmless, but in fact prolonged off-topic stuff endangers the
relevance of the resource, because it just dramatically increases the chances
that I right-click on the list's folder and select "Mark all as read."
Lee
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