Onno Benschop wrote:
Often I see a request for help appear on the list for which I think I
would also like to see the answer. Not that I am having the same
problem at that time but because the topic interests me or I think it
may be one to store away for future use. After several days when no
answer appears on the list I just assume that the request was answered
directly to the OP or that noone knew the answer. Sometimes the OP
will send an email to the list thanking those members who helped
him/her off list but often such acknowledgement does not contain the
solution to the problem.
[..]
It does not work to its best when / if the person asking for
answers does not reply to the list showing the successful result with the
remedy that achieved that.
[..]
Let's just get the remedies fed back to the list .............. please !
Hence these two lines in the posting guidelines:
When you reply to a posting made by another person:
1. Did you only respond to the list - unless specifically
asked otherwise?
6. It is good to be mindful of a future user who searches
the archive.
The intent of #1 is to encourage all postings to go via the list, to
assist those users who may need a solution at a later stage. This is
then amplified by #6, to actually state that there are future users who
may need this same solution.
A couple of earlier posts on this issue were a little surprising to me.
Specifically the issue of off-list replies.
On a few past occasions folk have replied to me off-list with their help.
I then took it upon myself to re-direct my subsequent replies back to
the list.
It has been suggested that this is or could be a no-no.
I hope that anyone in the past who has sent me a reply off-list, was not
offended when my response to it went back on-list.
I did use discretion and I believed there was nothing sensitive in the
information being forwarded back to the list, in fact I wasn't even sure
why some of these replies went off-list to me anyway.
I don't always do it, just when it seems appropriate.
Again, sorry if this has upset anyone.
I did feel that it was best for the list.
This is a GREAT list.
If it aint broke, don't fix it.
Cheers
Paul
