There's always an ironic and hypocritical aspect to commenting on people
posting
off-topic emails, but for once I'm going to do so. It's long, it's a
gratuitous
bitch session, ignore it :)
As Mr. van Wyk does not seem to understand that his postings were
inappropriate,
I'd like to point out some of the reasons why he may be in error.
The exact same email was posted four times to the mailing list. This was
obviously not an accident or some quirk of the mailer used, because they
were
spread over three days and (only) the first and last of these emails were
flagged as urgent. As these emails were sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] (who must
have been confused by the "Only Browser topics" note) and carbon copied to
this
list it is possible that Mr. van Wyk didn't notice that he was repeatedly
posting to
the mailing list also. Incompetence or oversight still wouldn't excuse the
generally
rude and selfish attitude of the author.
The claim that 95% of the people on the mailing list don't share the view
that
these postings were irrelevant is absurd. Including myself, at least seven
people - the list moderator among them - have expressed their disapproval.
This
should be enough to prompt anyone to give serious thought as to how their
actions may have caused offence.
Mr. van Wyk's persistence in his inane postings - after several warnings -
is
intolerable. Chris Wiles - being the list moderator - is not only within his
rights to instruct a person to cease posting off-topic mails, but is within
his
duty. His job in this respect is to ensure that the subscribers to this list
can get the support and enjoyment they should expect. It IS ultimately his
decision as to what is so off-topic as to do nothing but generate useless
traffic on the list.
The point of keeping mailing lists generally on-topic is that the majority
of
people subscribing to the list do not want to receive off-topic mails.
People
are forced to wade through rude, irrelevant garbage. It is no justification
to
say that you have a problem which people here can solve. It is important to
have
some consideration for the other list members.
Personally I'm subscribed to most lists hosted by VaporWare in order to
answer
or pass on any genuine support enquiries or bug reports. In busy times, this
can
result in receiving a thousand emails per week, all of which I read. My time
is
limited enough without the contribution of inconsiderate fools.
I don't want to give the impression that I'm altogether against off-topic
postings. If they have even a little relevance and are phrased politely,
they do
little harm and can be helpful and interesting. One man posting such
selfishly
rude and irrelevant emails as to cause a long string of complaints is
unacceptable.
The judgement of relevance is subjective. If a fellow list member objects to
a
posting being OT, think twice before pursuing the topic or posting similar
mails.
If the list moderator objects, take a bloody hint.
I apologise for wasting your time and bandwidth.
--
***** Jerome Fisher/Omniscient International *****
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
ICQ: 12597354
IRC: KingGuppy on ArcNet (irc.vapor.com)
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