David, Motion seconded. As a side note, there are some members of the IMail Forum who do not systematically respond to questions by dismissively sending the requestor to the archives. That may be because said members know that the search engine at http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ is, as you said, dismal.
In marked contrast, the Ipswitch KB is a wonderful resource and I have been known to include URLs to KB articles in my responses, as several other list members do. Add to this that first-time posters do not know the existence of either the KB nor the archives and you've got this recurring theme where a newbie asks about closing an open relay is quickly dispatched to those references he did not know about in the first place. The gurus on this list -- and I admire them -- sometimes send the poster a terse "RTFM" reply and I must admit that this is sometimes justified if the answer is indeed in the fine manual. Sending them to a FAQ list (IMail KB? Hard-to-search archives) is a different matter as the first-time poster cannot know their existence. As many have written before, we all started from scratch as IMail admins. It might be useful to remember this and many members do :) Guy ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Delbridge" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, December 14, 2002 2:52 PM Subject: [IMail Forum] Archive Searching > Hey gang, > > I'm sorry to be confrontational, but could we please ease up on the > hastiness in which we chastise folks for not searching the IMail > Archives? Let's face it, the Archives' searching capabilities are > dismally inadequate, especially considering the sophistication of its > users and the heavy reliance we place on this resource. Truth be told, > I have performed many searches on the IMail Archives that could not > isolate the required information for mere lack of granularity in search > criteria. It can be quite infuriating. > > Rather than slap wrists on a daily basis, let's recognize the demand > here and target the root of the problem. If the Archives' searching > capabilities cannot be upgraded outright, then I must humbly recommend a > more robust discussion forum solution, like those employed by > Macromedia, at http://webforums.macromedia.com/coldfusion/ . This is > only one example. Many such solutions exist that provide improved > organization of discussions and, most importantly, advanced searching > facilities with exact-phrase matching and boolean logic. > > My 2p. I hope it is helpful. > > Dave > > -- > > David M. Delbridge > President & CEO > Circa 3000 > ColdFusion Hosting > http://www.circa3k.com > 775-832-2445 > > To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html > List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ > Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ > To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/
