At 10:01 19-10-2002 -0500, Dan Minette wrote:
I think it depends on the contents. If the off-list message contains information that can reasonably be considered "private", then it should not be made public without the permission of the sender.> Once again, taking things back on-line, where it belongs.I'd like to ask a question about general rules of politeness. From what I've seen in a number of places, people are suppose to publically divulge the contents of private emails only with the explict permission of the sender.
If, however, the message is an off-list response to an on-list message and does not contain anything that can reasonably be considered "private", then I see nothing wrong with making it public and responding to it on-list. In the case of JDG's off-list messages, the entire content is relevant to the discussion and contains nothing that could cause him or anyone else any harm if it were made public.
In this particular case, I have the distinct impression that John is replying off-list because he realises that there is good chance that people will shoot holes in his arguments (but that is not exactly something that has never happened before), and that an on-list reply might generate criticism about his refusal to answer questions and about his refusal to back his claims.
Jeroen "Get your facts straight" van Baardwijk
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