conf/158238: [patch] motd[5]: Tell people to subscribe questions@ before posting.

[Julian H. Stacey]

Hi eadler at FreeBSD.org
cc rsimmons0 at gmail.com, jerry at seibercom.net

Reference:
> From:		eadler at FreeBSD.org 
> Date:		Fri, 24 Jun 2011 20:38:43 GMT 
> Message-id:	<201106242038.p5OKchwh016097 at freefall.freebsd.org> 

eadler at FreeBSD.org wrote:
> Synopsis: [patch] motd[5]: Tell people to subscribe questions@ before posting.
> 
> State-Changed-From-To: open->closed
> State-Changed-By: eadler
> State-Changed-When: Fri Jun 24 20:30:58 UTC 2011
> State-Changed-Why: 
> 1) questions@ is open by design. postmaster@ has not said that -questions will be becoming a closed list. If after further discussion postmaster@ agrees this PR could be re-opened
> 2) FreeBSD prefers patches in the unified diff format not context diff format.
> 
> http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=158238


Sorry. Your closure is wrong.  Please revoke & attach this.

Grounds for objection: Your consideration was partial & inadequate.

You ignored:
	Description: ....
        ensure newbies get all replies, (as some respondents just
        reply to lists, not to all previous thread participants, &
        some newbies might not realise. )

Your logic failed:
Re. your "postmaster@ has not said that"
Equally "Postmaster@ team have not said they never will" - Far as I know.

- Newbies receive /etc/motd changes once per release, list policy
  could / might need to change any time, perhaps half a year later, 
  best edit /etc/motd, ready for possible mail list change later.

- Some subscribers of questions@ may or not have recently
  asked postmaster@ to consider options, but I have not asked. You
  do not state if you have asked or know, or are or not subscribed
  to questions@ to know.  (I am subscribed).
  Perhaps you don't know, so history:
	When questions@ was founded it provided dual benefit:
	officialy "Help newbies with singular address" & more
	cycnicaly: "Keeps simple repetitive newbie questions off
	other lists" ;-)

- Questions@ traffic's changed since then, a lot noisier in several ways,
  +spam, +more skilled users, +some posters that other posters might
  like to see lose write access, - but thats not possible on an open
  list.  Ask opinions from other subscribers inc. eg rsimmons0 at gmail.com
  & jerry at seibercom.net

- When postmaster@ is asked to consider questions@, 
  whether it could be subscription or open to every sender, presumably
  postmaster@ will want to ask questions@ &/or read archives to get
  a picture of current circumstance.  Future list policy must Not
  be pre-empted by a singular commiter prematurely closing a send-pr.

- The diff does not force / require / assume anything of postmaster.
  Does not block posters.  Does encourage people to subscribe, Does
  give FreeBSD the option to later change if needed, without losing
  postings for months between possible list change & when newbies
  finally update to a new release with /etc/motd advising subscribe.

If you had been constructive or given some thought, you could have offered
even just a one word amendement improvement, eg from

  ! If you still have a question or problem, please subscribe (free) via
  ! http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/subscribe/freebsd-questions  then take
  ! the output of `uname -a', 

to 

  ! If you still have a question or problem, Preferably subscribe (free) via
  ! http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/subscribe/freebsd-questions  then take
  ! the output of `uname -a', 

As you did not do that either, here's a new diff -u patch.

-----
--- motd.org	2011-06-25 01:59:30.000000000 +0200
+++ motd     	2011-06-25 01:57:41.000000000 +0200
@@ -13,9 +13,10 @@
    http://www.FreeBSD.org/search/.  If the doc distribution has
    been installed, they're also available formatted in /usr/share/doc.
 
-If you still have a question or problem, please take the output of
-`uname -a', along with any relevant error messages, and email it
-as a question to the questions at FreeBSD.org mailing list.  If you are
+If you still have a question or problem, please preferably subscribe (free)
+via http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/subscribe/freebsd-questions  then take 
+the output of `uname -a', along with any relevant error messages, and email
+it as a question to the questions at FreeBSD.org mailing list.  If you are
 unfamiliar with FreeBSD's directory layout, please refer to the hier(7)
 manual page.  If you are not familiar with manual pages, type `man man'.
 
-----

Please revert your ill advised closure, Remove the diff -c patch,
insert diff -u patch, & leave for others to consider. Thank You.
	
Julian
-- 
Julian Stacey, BSD Unix Linux C Sys Eng Consultants Munich http://berklix.com
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