From: "Bill Cole" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
| I think that one of us (not Molly) is writing an awful lot. According
to
| my list, one person has posted nine messages between 8:19 and 10:30 AM
| PST. Some of those were in a two-person conversation that could better
be
| carried on privately. At that rate there would be about 35 messages in
an
| 8-hour day.
|
| GML has a capacity of only 100 total messages per day. Most GML readers
| are busy and have a smaller capacity than that..
I posted that grouchy message this morning. I'll give you a follow-up.
On Wednesday there were 98 GML messages posted to GML in my PST time zone,
which is two hours earlier than the official GML clock at Rice Univ. That
doesn't even count my 2-4 postings. It does count a number from Julian
(as one example of an expert), who evidently had the time on Wednesday to
reply to many people.
You can do without my messages, but you can't do without Julian's and
those like him.
Many people unsubscribe from GML saying they cannot afford the time or
money to keep up with that traffic. Please be considerate, folks. Don't
cause us to lose expertise and experience from good people.
I personally will try to be more considerate. I've already learned not to
do whacky humor things unless GML message traffic is low, and to reply by
private email whenever I think the topic doesn't interest many GML
readers. (And thanks for your patience while I learned.) I don't do
nearly as many whacko humor things as I used to do. Sooo -- I'll try to
do my part.
Here are a few more grouches -- because we might lose our expert help if
we can't do better:
** Please bother to learn the tools that your PC gives you to save
information, and even to type notes to yourself. Buy yourself some paper
and pencil if you can't figure out your computer.
** Please try to RESEARCH your question before asking it on GML. Many
good people have made answers available to you on the Web. They did a lot
of work to do that. It is pure laziness if you don't research before
asking in GML -- and disrespects both those who did the work, and the
rest of us.
** Please SAVE the information you acquire here. It is totally
unreasonable for you to ask the same question more than once, or even to
ask the same question that was answered a week or so ago. Learn to use
Favorities/Bookmarks, and your own email saving, and GML Archives.
Try to put yourself in the place of people like Karin, and Elizabeth, and
Eva, and Tana and many others who take the time to answer questions based
on their expertise and experience. This isn't their JOB. We rely on
their generosity. So they are NOT your own personal information desk.
Please act accordingly.
Those of us with just some experience help as best we can, and enjoy
talking and learning here. But don't be unreasonable/disrespectful with
us either, please.
The GML is a Golden Goose -- and if you are inconsiderate, you will kill
it.
What got me launched on this was one particular thread of messages on
Wednesday. One GML reader, who has used its resources much more than she
has contributed, asked a technical question about genetics because she is
planning her breeding program. I'd guess that 8-12 message of yesterday's
98 total were devoted to that. I did not warn you that I personally know
that person SAVES nothing on her PC, and evidently doesn't use pencil and
paper either. Someone else finally asked why this interest, because the
questioner had recently announced she was not going to breed again --
and then changed that to "maybe in a few months". I felt awful for you
all who had tried to help. It turns out she isn't going to breed for a
few months (if ever) -- and everything you wrote to her was wasted IMHO.
Maybe it wasn't wasted but I'll bet anyone on it.
I sure do NOT want to discourage asking for advice about a problem (if you
have tried to answer it from usual Web sources). And I do NOT want to
discourage social conversation and fun either, because that's part of GML.
But above is what I'm seeing.
so hummmph ... Bill
