Excellent advice has already been posted about how to respond (or more accurately, not respond) to list "troublemakers."
I would like to add two comments, however: Any mailing list is what the users make of it. If one has a question and doesn't ask it, or has a potential solution and doesn't offer it, then one is essentially contributing to the negative reputation, IMO. One might also be saying, in effect, "I'm useless (or too dumb). I don't matter. I have no control. I don't want to help." I'd rather be saying to myself "I need help. I think there may be someone out there who can help me. Or, I don't know if this will help anyone, but just in case..." One of the things I really like about this list is its international membership. We have to remember that although we all write (and presumably speak) English, it is not the same language throughout the world. I have seen some of the most helpful people on this list accused of rudeness when all that happened was the use of an idiom that I had not heard before, or what appeared to me to be a cultural difference in the directness with which one makes a statement. Being direct/blunt is not the same as being rude, although I know many of us, perhaps particularly here in the US, have a problem differentiating those two concepts. Connie Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
