[IMail Forum] OT: Etiquette, Manners and Respect

[John Tolmachoff]

Last night, after thinking about all the posting over the last week, I got fired up to write this. However, 5 hours of sleep calmed me down. But reading the posts this morning reaffirmed my resolve to post.   First, No disrespect or offense is intended at any one. Second, I am not expecting any replies to this. In fact, maybe it is better to see no replies to this post.   I am breaking one of the etiquette rules by posing in HTML, but am doing so for the effects HTML offers.   During the last week, there have been enough “emotional” posts that I had to get my hip boots out of the closet. I will admit here clearly that I was one of them. This is a reflection of the attitudes of the world as a whole, and is not pointed at any one in particular. I have not posted in the professional respectful manner that I should, as have others.   The general consensus is that the world is losing the meaning of the words Respect, Manners and Politeness.   For instance, there is no requirement that if you post a differing opinion or information refuting an earlier post that the poster in question should respond, either with a retraction, acknowledgement or other. However, it would be respectful to do so. Furthermore, if it was shown that the post in question was incorrect, and that poster posted a retraction, acknowledgement or other, then that posted would be tend to be view as being professional, while a poster that did not respond might tend to be viewed with less respect. That is human nature.   Ipswitch provides this list as a means for fellow Imail Admins to share problems, successes and tips and to help work through problems. But it is apparent that many “newbies” to this list are in the midst of a problem or crisis, and have been pointed here from Ipswitch, either from the website or other. Because of that, they may be feeling a little hot or bothered because something is wrong and they need to get it fixed now because users are banging on the door. Therefore, maybe we “Veterans” should not jump on a newbie to hard when they do not post using proper Etiquette. Maybe Ipswitch should, as a condition of signing up for the list, have the person agree to abide and read the Etiquette that Ipswitch has posted. http://support.ipswitch.com/kb/IM-20020802-DM01.htm   I would like to go through a couple of those: (Numbers do not necessarily correspond to those in Ipswitch’s list.)   Please search the IMail Support Center, the Archives and FAQ. Many “Veterans” get tired of replying to the same questions over and over. Things like “I am not a relay” and “How to move to a new server” and so on. Understand what it is you want to ask, and visit: http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html There are good examples of this over the last week were it took several posts and responses to get to the heart of what was really being asked. If you want a good answer, provide good details. Questions like “I changed ISPs and now Imail is not sending, what is wrong?” will not solve your problem and only lead to frustrations. It is very helpful to make notes for your self on exactly what you do on your servers. This is for your benefit. I myself am a victim of this, where I have had a problem on a server, did not keep notes on what I did, then spend hours looking for why this or that is not working when I finally remember that I change something and oh yeah, keyboard virus struck. But, it is ok to post that something is wrong and I this and that and I need help on where to find what needs to be done. I also think that everyone should start listing items. For instance, when you change something and something stops working, list what you did. That way, we can respond to each item like well number 1 was not really needed but on number 3 you should do this. This will help to get to a resolution quicker. Delete unnecessary text when quoting a post. It is wasting bandwidth. This also affects the way responses are read. For instance, in a recent post, the original poster kept responding to others. The problem was sometimes his response was at the top, sometimes on the bottom, and sometimes in the middle. Frankly, I am not going to go through and entire post trying to figure out where the response is. When responding, only include the text paragraph or such that you are responding to. This is also were only using text and not HTML will help. When responding to HTML, the client software adds the response in different places depending on how the client is set up. Please allow time for people to respond to your post. We are working too. Plus, some lists are known to be slow to post.� For Instance, during the day, it takes almost an hour for a post I make to appear on the list. Why, that is a question that we would like Ipswitch to address. Also, by not firing off a reply, it gives one a little time to think about what was said. If you do not understand the response, politely ask for an explanation. If your post is criticized, please reread your original post you sent along with the reply and take a few minutes to think about them before snapping out a reply. Again, this could be caused by miscommunications. For instance, some one replies that you need to do this and that. But you feel that has noting to do with what the problem is. Maybe just try it any way, or post rephrasing your original information. Remember, what this means to you may mean different to some one else. One of the biggest problems I see is some one will post they are having a problem, and some one will respond has anything changed in DNS. You snap out this has nothing to do with DNS. What has that led to, irritation and bad feelings.   Working with e-mail depends on DNS services, and if not exactly correct, can lead to problems. A short trucking story: A company I used to work for had assigned a truck to me that was a little hard to steer, even with power steering. Well, it is my job to drive the truck and get the load delivered, so I did so only mildly complaining about the steering. When I was given a new truck, my old one was assigned to some one else. He refused to drive it because the steering would always try to hand at one point. They finally took it to the dealer; they tore it apart looking for the problem. Turns out a gear in the steering gear box was turned 180�. A fluke that it worked at all. The moral, just because something has worked for x amount of time does not mean that everything is correct.   We need to be more respectful and polite towards each other and show good manners. After all, isn’t the purpose of this list to help one another? To quote an infamous line, “Can’t we all just get along?”   8:00 PDT 10/02/02   John Tolmachoff IT Manager, Network Engineer RelianceSoft, Inc. Fullerton, CA� 92835 www.reliancesoft.com