Enough already. Was Re: OT: netiquette (was: The Perfect SpamSnake - Ubuntu 8.04 TLS)

[Julian Field]

Arthur Sherman wrote:
> <SNIP>
Now, now, folks.
Enough of this, guys.

Virtually no-one behaves badly out of neglect or anything wilful. We all 
had to start somewhere, and I bet even some of the old-timers (no insult 
intended!) on this list have accidentally top-posted or hijacked a 
thread earlier in their lives before they learned why it can be a 
problem for a few people. I get an awful lot of mail, and I don't mind 
people hijacking threads (I don't use threaded views in my mail client) 
or occasionally top-posting (I do it myself often enough!).

This list usually runs itself, and very rarely is my intervention 
needed, as I try to keep it to a minimum. You folks are normally pretty 
well-behaved and in the past I have received comments saying what a 
lovely polite list this is. I don't want that to change.

The poor guy who accidentally hijacked a thread at some point in this 
conversation didn't do it wilfully, trying to make your life hard or 
trying to ensure you didn't see his posting. He did it by mistake, and 
we all make them. I have a feeling that English is not his first 
language, so he may not have understood what was meant by any criticism 
of his posting.

Also, if you don't know that threaded mail clients exist, or you don't 
understand what is meant by this strange technical use of the term 
"threading", then any explanation will go straight over his head. Think 
about that before you criticise people; English ain't the only language 
spoken here. I have advised people in the past that if they know more 
Spanish than English, then they will get a better response by posting 
their question in Spanish as there are quite a few Spanish speakers here 
who can help them. No-one complains when a posting is made in Spanish.

So, please, lighten up a bit and try to remember that not only do people 
make mistakes, but they might neither know why they have made a mistake 
nor understand any criticism you make about them.

Can we please end this whole thread here and now. If you want to comment 
on this posting, send your comments to me off-list. I don't want to see 
this Subject: line again. I want to see this list go back to the 
helpful, constructive, polite and well-behaved place it normally is. I 
don't want to see any of this "net-cop" behaviour in future.

Have a nice weekend, get out and enjoy the Spring weather.

Best regards,

Jules

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