David Shugarts wrote:
>The people that are going to be snide and nasty to newbies should go off
>into their cave and consort together. Maybe they will appreciate being
>bullied and insulted if it is done by "experts."
>
Want a good example? That reply was sent by hitting 'reply' to send it
directly to Jeremy. However, Jeremy has reply-to: set to the list so my
private reply to him went directly to the list instead.
Good example :-) I'm suitably embarassed, but your response is good
nonetheless.
>Too many messages are getting snarly-ass replies that don't help the
>seeker-of-wisdom. If you are such smart guys, prove it and answer the
>questions in a helpful way!
>
I've given numerous examples and URLs over the last 3 years ... feel
free to look them up; some of them this week.
>People are telling you that you have the list set up to respond wrong, from
>the predominant view of how a list should work. You go to some arcane
>references to prove how wrong they are, instead of just fixing it.
>
Arcane?
The Internet's strength is in following the RFCs that make everything
intercompatible. I'm not sure why you think RFC 822 is arcane, but
perhaps its because you don't understand how it works.
An RFC is gven for how a service should operate (822 is for E-mail).
That RFC is then implemented by various programs so that they can all
work together. The RFC is maintained and updated and if everyone
ratifies it, it becomes an Internet Standard (which is mentionned at the
top of the RFC, with its appropriate number).
If people "just changed" things so they "just worked" for one person, it
would break services for the other person. Please at least read the
URLs I gave yesterday before bothering to reply to this; I don't feel
like typing the same thing over and over again.
>the same complaints month after month. Who is being more stupid here, the
>newbies or the "experts"?
>
>
Neither; the software companies like Microsoft who make software however
they feel like and don't bother providing the features those newbies
want. Experts are smart enough to switch to more intelligent software
whereas newbies are frustrated by what they see as a list inefficiency
that is in fact caused by Microsoft (or the creator of whatever package
they use).
--
Michael T. Babcock
C.T.O., FibreSpeed Ltd.
http://www.fibrespeed.net/~mbabcock
