I wouldn't go too hard on Elias... Mailing lists can be hard to
use and especially when someone else signs you up to lots of them
suddenly, and you have to work fast or suffer your mailbox being
choked off. If you don't know a list's server address, you can't
get yourself off, and you also don't even know who to ask. If you
know nothing about mailing lists, you won't even know the basic
command that gets you help (BTW, for those Gumbies out there,
it's "Help.") Try it and see if you can figure out how to get the
MapInfo-L-specific help. Heck, we even have people here (besides
Elias) who try to unsubscribe by sending various attempts at that
hard-to-spell command to the whole list instead of just to the
server. (Misspellings won't work there either; remember,
computers do only what you tell them to do!) And if you don't
read and write english as your primary language, imagine how much
harder it can be. But of course, your first clue is always right
at the bottom of every MapInfo-L message:
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Elias had a good point, though... the mailing list software
always *should* confirm that you really want to be signed up when
the request is made. Majordomo (the software we use) doesn't do
that, and since it's free we can't demand our money back. But
when it comes right down to it, the problem isn't with people,
it's with the software. As long as it's too hard to use and too
easy to spoof, we will see Elias and others like him again.
Just be thankful Microsoft doesn't own the net (yet) or we'd have
to suffer a sniggering "paperclip buddy" fawning obsequiously at
us every time we look like we're flailing away at worthless WIMP
interfaces that are so cleverly written as to always manage to
dynamically hide the very operation we need.
- Bill Thoen
Francois Molle wrote:
>
> After the inconvenience experienced by our group, now divided in those
> 1) who had put "ELIAS" in their email filters; 2) those who got nuts and
> aired their anguish, in an attempt the relieve their stress, 3) those -
> the silent majority - who were wondering : "will that guy go on for
> weeks like this ?". Everyday in life is a lesson and the lesson of this
> story (which was taught during 3 days or so...) was : Look what
> perseverance, determination, and utmost tenacity in achieving his goals
> a man is capable of ! Kids you don't need to be smart [did Elias ever
> wonder why he was not receiving message with others' "unsubscribe" !!],
> just be stubborn and you will be rewarded (forgiven ?), just like Elias,
> who was eventually "unsubscribed" (by a distressed webmaster), as he
> wished to be !
> One must also marvel at the unfathomable faith Elias puts in
> computers... which, he believes, did not respond to his first 40 attemps
> but wouldl perhaps hear him at the 41st time ! I like this human way of
> looking at machines...
>
> Pancho
>
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