On Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:37:42 +0000
Came this utterance formulated by AG to my mailbox:
> Is it just me or does this list seem to receive a surprising amount of
> messages requesting to be unsubscribed? I belong to over 20 other
> lists from a range of (computing-related) fields and this is easily
> the list with the highest unsubscription-related traffic from this
> albeit limited sample, as exemplified by Mr Considine's repeated plea
> below.
>
> At the risk of coming across as elitist or starting some kind of
> flame-war, I wonder if this is because with the exception of a couple
> of multi-platform lists, my other subscriptions exclude MS Windows and
> MS Office users by the nature of the OS used (GNU/Linux and *BSD).
> The multi-platform lists (with the exception of this one) concern
> programming, so are platform generic, but are likely to attract a
> higher percentage of "computer-aware" users. OOo users is the one
> cross-platform list I belong to that is for the user rather than a
> programmer demographic and is also the one most plagued as described.
>
* The OO.o lists are (relativly) easy to find on the website.
* The user list especially is prone to be seen as an email helpdesk
facility.
* signing up is (too?) easy.
* Many who want the power of an Office product are newbies to
computers.
* Many who want help are not even familiar with copy and paste.
* Many who want help are totally unfamiliar with mailing lists:
- No knowledge of threading.
- No knowledge of top or bottom posting conventions.
- No knowledge of how to set up an email filter.
* Many join the list without understanding how many emails they will
receive.
* Many do not know howw to get off a mailing list once on:
- the list has been threatened with lawsuits for spamming.
- the list has suffered manual blitz attacks from those frustrated in
trying to get off the list.
* Third parties that sell OO.o direct often quote this list as a help
facility.
* Some list members have recommended to unsubscribed posters that they
should subscribe.
* Most of these topics have been discussed repeatedly.
* Many newbies for the above reasons are better off not subscribed.
* Programmers, especially OSS programmers, are not only familiar with
mailing lists but also mailing list nettiquette. Newbies are often not.
A few that could genuinely help have given up and unsubscribed
themselves due to the signal/noise ratio. Some with low tolerance to
newbie mistakes hang around interminably slamming newbies. Others with
serious opposition to the way this list is run also hang round
interminably griping, sniping and flaming. It may be like mayhem around
here, but there is still a good amount of usefull help that goes on
regardless.
HTH
--
Michael
All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall
be well
- Julian of Norwich 1342 - 1416
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