From: Jan Wee <jwee@mail.arc.nasa.gov>
Subject: List concerns
Date: Thu, 09 Jan 1997 17:11:06 -0600
Dear Joseph and discuss-lfm members, >I must confess that I am beginning to dislike this bulletin board. Each >day I turn on my computer and have to wade through ten or more e-mails from >our folks who wish to chat about personal problems. Most of the time these >problems, being persoanl, are not relevant to the larger group and should >therefore be directed to individual and not to everyone. I am sure there >is a way to do this and others see the value of my request. If you agree >or disagree that is up to you. Please "do not" email me your feelings. I >just want to share my concern for having to scan through everyone's >personal problems. Furthermnore, this might just reduce all the noise >floating around in cyberspace. I have to admit when I first read your message I was unclear about the reason. I didn't recall seeing any postings about "personal problems" but I decided to take a look at the archive of e-mail from discuss-lfm. Perhaps the point you are trying to make is really worthy. Sometimes people have a tendency to post directly to the list when all would be better served by sending a message directly to the person for whom it is intended. For example, one person copied a series of messages that were needed by one individual and posted a copy to the discuss-lfm forum. In this case, it would have been better to simply send the message to the person in need of the missing messages. The person was well-intentioned and simply helping out, but the whole list does not need a copy. Other times we see messages containing lengthy and unnecessary portions of previous messages quoted/copied in the reply. It is helpful and good netiquette to simply leave that portion of the message needed and pertinent to the posting than to copy all of the message into reply. It may take a moment or two to delete unneed passages but your fellow list members will appreciate your time and effort. I appreciate Joseph's point about having to scan unnecessary postings. Maybe Joseph's note serves as a good reminder to all of us to polish our e-mail netiquette skills. Keeping our discussion focused and postings that are relevant to the Live From Mars project or related resources and topics will help us keep prospering from the discussion. Sincerely, Jan Wee, moderator discuss-lfm