List replies

[Giorgos Keramidas]

On Sun, 23 Mar 2008 20:53:54 +0100, Tore Lund <tl32 at next.online.no> wrote:
> Giorgos Keramidas wrote:
>> [snip]
>> We don't accept email only from lurkers.  The mailing list is  also
>> advertized as the official place to ask questions in CD-ROMs provided by
>> vendors, in our documentation, on magazines, conferences, and so on.
>
> The normal thing on all other forums that I have heard of - and that
> includes Usenet - is that you have to go back to the forum to pick up
> answers to your question.

The `normal' thing is defined only on a per-forum basis, however.  What
other forums do is not `The Law', and the opposite of what you are
trying to defend has been wide-spread practice in all the mailing lists
of FreeBSD and in many other free and open source projects I am
contributing to for more than 15 years or so.

I would be surprised if that were the case, but I think we must have
been using different alter egos of the Internet until we met here ;-)

> The mechanism that you defend represents a break with established
> practice for most computer users.

I'm not sure replying only to the list is `established practice for most
computer users'.  So I can't agree that this is a valid argument for
switching what we have been doing in freebsd-questions for the past 10
years or so that I'm subscribed.

> I have heard all the arguments many times over, and I don't buy them.
> I think it would be better to direct newbies to
> comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc, which at least has a predictable
> interface.  (For instance, you don't risk missing the rest of a
> discussion because someone decides to prune the headers.)

The header trimming and its dangers seem to be an argument exactly for
the _opposite_ of what you are suggesting.  By posting a reply only to
the list the user runs the risk of missing even the _first_ reply ever!

I'm sorry, but it's me who doesn't feel inclined to buy into any of the
arguments presented so far.

- Giorgos