On Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 6:54 PM, Guruprasad <[email protected]> wrote: > person to use the correct posting style, I guess it would be read, as > it is a reply to *their* post. We try to remind people about the > mailing list guidelines so that they can learn from their mistakes, > instead of the ideal 'learn from others mistakes'.
I have been trying a lot, not to get into this thread. But here goes .... :-) <Premise> I use GMail, both through web, as well as through KMail. I am a member of this group since 1998 or 99 albeit mostly silent. </Premise> I appreciate the efforts made by a few to have this list as clean as possible and also educate the new joiners. Good work. Having said this, I should also say that, it gets plain boring/considered Spamming/ Irritating, to see the same reply of "Follow the rules" in 10 different threads, on the same day! Sometimes, out of personal experience, some people send such "follow the rules" mails, without even reading the context or checking if the mails are really following the guidelines. When a newbie comes and asks a (stupid) question, we generally ask him to go and search. --> This is GOOD. When someone else, with not so good experience in moving with the group, particularly when the language is not up to the mark, we ask him more questions and help answer the same. Sometimes, the tone is harsh, but its still acceptable, as we are still helping him/her. When the same person (as described above), forgets to follow the rules, we just jump on him/her and scare him/her from asking questions. Or otherwise, we just irritate them. This IMHO, is not a good idea. The best option would be to leave that "policing" (for want of a better word), to the person who is genuinely trying to answer the question. Scenarios: A, B and C ask some stupid questions/ top posts P, Q and R are the responders. P sends a reply to all the 3 threads started by A, B and C, asking them to follow the rules, without even reading the contents of the email. Q Sends a private email with the same "follow the rules" R sends a genuine reply to the query sent by C, but also advices that he will stop responding if C doesn't follow the rules in his/her reply. R does not care about A and B. In my personal opinion, I consider P as more of Spamming, Q a bit more OK, but still a "Big Brother", while R to be a "good friend". And, I think, "R"'s approach would be more healthy than P's. Q's approach is less irritating to others, but, people have filters :-). There is one more reason, why P's approach is a bad idea and in fact a SPAM. When I search for similar queries before asking, I see this thread X, with 1 reply (in a threaded view). I get excited and open it, and only to find that it is a "follow the rules" mail. which is really frustrating, amounting to trolling/spamming. Now, there is a "D" who is a repeat offender. Kicking him/her out of the list is a "good idea". No personal offences meant. Request you to kindly take it in a healthy sense. with regards, Natarajan. _______________________________________________ ILUGC Mailing List: http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc
