Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1998 21:47:57 +0100
Reply-To: Ed Stevens <ejstevens@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Ed Stevens <ejstevens@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject: Re: Posting Etiquette
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
On 8/24/98 1:43 PM, S_J_ WACKER emailed
>My e-mail service allows me to choose not to see "mail headers", so I
>generally reply without looking to see if the mail comes from the list or
>is sent privately. Hitting "reply" always addresses the individual, but
>if I think what I have to say is useful, I will send my reply to the list
>without checking to see if the letter came thru the list or privately.
>So...perhaps you might want to make a note in the body of your missive
>that lets the recipient know it is private.
>
>Send noose and noodle via p-mail with proper "private" notation.
>
>Steve.
>
>On Sun, 23 Aug 1998 11:59:59 -0700 marcus <marcus46@FREEWWWEB.COM>
>writes:
>>This is standard list procedure as I know it. Any one who violates
>>this
As this was sent via the list I will respond via the list. I do not want
people to think that yours is a majority opinion even though I like your
idea. I do not wish to offend anyone or make these matters worse. I am
approaching this as a hypothetical matter as I am not involved in any
ongoing debate about it. And I do not recall that you were involved
either.
In My Humble Opinion
I think it is a sensible idea Steve for someone to label their email as
private if it is. It can only help the recipient respond properly, avoid
mea culpas, and continue the ettiquette of the internet. But even in the
absence of a "PRIVATE" label it is rather discourteous to post back to
the list when private mail was sent.
Steve, you said
>if I think what I have to say is useful, I will send my reply to the list
>without checking to see if the letter came thru the list or privately.
The _without checking_ part is why I am writing this posting. The
logical extension of this statement is that you may think you owe no
courtesy to the sender to even bother to look at whether it was listmail
or p-mail, and this is wrong. You should.
Courtesy is not something that a sender should have to ask for Steve, it
is something that the responder-listmember should be responsible for and
the sender-listmember should EXPECT.
IT is your responsibility to LOOK and set up your email system to enable
you to be successful in looking and to be properly courteous to the
sender.
And if you do setup your email system to display headers, you do look and
occassionally you make a mistake, well that happens. But to me a systemic
shoulder shrug is wrong as is shifting the ettiquette responsibility back
to a sender.
Now if you want to respond back to the list with a sanitized version of
your pmail (removing anyone else's musing and ravings) because it has web
sites, phone numbers or information "useful" to the list. I think that
would be fine. More work for you, but benefit to the list. And we thank
you for that work and effort.
If JUNO (Your free internet email service) is causing you a hardship in
this regard I am sorry for your hardship but it is not yours alone. If
others have to (mildly) suffer the relentless advertisements, I should
hope JUNO users have the power to approach the internet with a reasonably
full featured email reader. And if not, well perhaps these free email
services are not all they are cracked up to be if the ettiquette of the
internet is being abandoned or compromised.
You have a sensible idea about the PRIVATE label, and we should be
forgiving when a mistake happens. But I think most of us agree as to
what the responsibilities are here.
-peace
Ed Stevens
Valley Forge PA
