Re: META: Public flames (was, "NEWBIE: Does anyone have circlemud30bpl17 with OasisOLCv2.0 and DG Scripts patched in?")

From: Daniel A. Koepke (dkoepke@circlemud.org)
Date: 06/19/01


On Wed, 20 Jun 2001, Siber Wulf wrote:

> Not to add to the fire, but I'm quite frustrated when people decide to
> "flame another person" and send it to the mailing list.

Sorry you feel that way.  Unfortunately, I can't agree with your point.
I feel its invalid and short-sighted.  (And I've felt that way pretty much
every time its been brought up.)

Invalid because: my message was an answer to his question (in addition to
being a flame).  As it stands, the information contained within the
message could be used by others (as well as the original poster) who had
the same question, but not the sense enough to puruse the resources that
the community has given them.  The message also provides a relatively
thorough analysis of the benefits of doing these things for yourself, as
opposed to simply relying on the list.

Shortsighted because: provided the message contains some validity to the
list or to CircleMUD, it's an entirely defensible practice.  The point is
not to simply repremand or extract some revenge from the initiator of the
thread.  That's meaningless, trivial, and petty.  The point is to
discourage others from following suit and continuing the pattern of not
reading the FAQ, not using the readily available resources, and then using
this list and its 300+ members to ask questions that could easily be
answered had they done either or both of the previous two.  It's not only
justified, but it's a valuable means of the list moderating itself.

Naturally, the policy is still left to Alex -- should he rule that such
messages are unnecessary or bad, he won't keep it a secret.  As of now,
though, if you /really/ can't stomach it and see no other recourse (I'd
recomemend filtering me out to /dev/null, first), well, you know how to
unsubscribe.  Provided that you have read the FAQ, anyway.


ObMailingListFAQ:

Alex -- Consider adding the META: subject tag to question #3 for tagging
messages that are of more concern to the list than to CircleMUD.

--
Daniel A. Koepke (dak), dkoepke@circlemud.org
Caveat emptor: I say what I mean and mean what I say.  Listen well.
Caveat venditor: Say what you mean, mean what you say.  Say it well.

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