Re: Fwd: Re: [OT] Re: Defending yourself

[Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com>]

On Wed, 11 May 2011 23:24:30 -0500, Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote:

> On 2011-05-11 17:35:20 Freeman wrote:
>>On Wed, May 11, 2011 at 08:30:49PM +0000, Camaleón wrote:

(...)
 
>>> IMHO, that rule lacks the following preface: "Should a user states
>>> his/ her desire to keep a private conversation..."
>>
>>+1
> 
> -1
> 
>>Unless the user states that it is a private email, or it is obviously
>>discrete, the most expeditious thing is to forward it to the list.
> 
> It's nearly impossible to infer whether the sender meant the message to
> be private or not.  

No, it is not.

I am writing to a public mailing list and I expect that any reply to any 
of what I wrote on it is kept the same -public- and directed to the 
mailing list.

So as I am not the one breaking the way a mailing list works, if I 
receive an e-mail _just directed to me_ (and not to the list) following a 
thread that is taking place in a public mailing list I can proceed as I 
prefer.

> Making the reply public and cause significant and
> irreversible damage.  Whereas, keeping the reply private causes, at
> most, temporary and reversible damage.

Should the user wants to go private, he/she has to clearly state so in 
the message. If he/she does not, that's not my fault and I don't have a 
crystal ball to guess each user preferences on this matter. 

> Replies to private messages should be kept private.  

Then you will finally break the nature and the easiness of the mailing 
list flow and put extra job on the user who does not want to keep the 
thread in private. 

A mailing list is quite similar to the open source philosophy and by 
encouraging going private you are getting not getting any gain at all: I 
read and write into a mailing list because _I want to share_ things for 
all of us to benefit from it not to make a "vis-à-vis".

> It is easy enough
> to prompt the sender to use the list for future correspondence and
> simultaneously give you permissions for your private message to be
> quoted in a public forum.

Sure, but that's not my task.

I'm fine if someone asks me off-list about anything (I reply almost all 
of them) but something that is being discussed in a public thread should 
be kept public... unless (I repeat) the user explictly says he/she 
prefers to go off-list for whatever reason.

Greetings,

-- 
Camaleón