How to get best results from FreeBSD-questions

[Matthew Seaman]

On Sat, Jan 10, 2004 at 03:48:12AM -0800, Loren M. Lang wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 09, 2004 at 05:02:01PM -0800, Greg Lehey wrote:
> > 6.  Unless there's a good reason to do otherwise, reply to the sender
> >     and to FreeBSD-questions.  Many people on the FreeBSD-questions
> >     are "lurkers": they learn by reading messages sent and replied to
> >     by others.  If you take a message which is of general interest off
> >     the list, you're depriving these people of their information.  Be
> >     careful with group replies; lots of people send messages with
> >     hundreds of CCs.  If this is the case, be sure to trim the Cc:
> >     lines appropriately.

> Hmmm...  seems like I remember this as a big no-no on some other list,
> as it stated that most people who submitted messages were probably also
> subscribed, and it was an irritation to them to see duplicates to all
> the replies.  I know I am slightly annoyed when I see that, but only
> slightly.  It finished saying that anyone who wanted a personal reply to
> state so, but if they didn't, I'd hate not knowing if they received my
> reply just because I assumed they were subscribed.

FreeBSD-questions is a special case: as it's the most prominently
advertised support contact point, the expectation is that a large
fraction of the participants won't be members of the list.  It's also
the case that we want answers to go to the list, as then the list
archives form a kind of knowledge-base whereby people can help
themselves.

Now that the FreeBSD lists are managed using Mailman, you have the
option not to receive any message to a mailing list where your address
is already listed in the To: or CC: headers.  I think it's set to
"Yes" by default.

Personally, I just hit 'g' in mutt.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                       26 The Paddocks
                                                      Savill Way
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey         Marlow
Tel: +44 1628 476614                                  Bucks., SL7 1TH UK
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