Banner/Link exchange proposal (fwd)

[corliss at alaskapm.org]

On Wed, 22 Dec 1999, Roxanne Reid-Bennett wrote:

> corliss at alaskapm.org wrote:
> [...]
> > Now, what is everyone's preference?  Do a simple reply to this message to send
> > me a private vote. . .
> 
> Arthur, under almost any condition I'd vote for a "reply" to go to the
> author, and the writer would have to work to have the reply go to (just)
> the list.  However, with the list as "dead" as it currently is, changing
> the default behavior, at least for a period of time, may actually
> encourage discussion that wouldn't take place any other way.. If for no
> other reason than people saying "oops".

:-)  I'll put you down as vote for Jeremiah's preference, then.  So far,
though, I have two votes for the current configuration, and two for
Jeremiah's, both counts including both myself and Jeremiah.  Talk about voter
apathy.  ;-)

Until I hear from more list users, I won't be changing anything.  As a matter
of personal policy, no amount of public squawking is going to make me take
action without a good rationale and some general consensus.  I don't
particularly like how this issue was broached to begin with, and I think I've
been very tolerant in my handling of it to date.

> Jeremiah Johnson wrote:
> > I don't want to have to do extra work to get this list to behave like
> > every other list on the planet.
> 
> I'll disagree with you on this one, in general.  The net standard (at
> least the last time I read it) highly recommends that "reply" go to the
> author *as the standard*.  There are all sorts of reasons for that
> behavior, most of them apply to higher-volume lists.  [and considering
> that for a period of about a year I was running over a dozen mail lists
> generating between 100-750 messages a day to several thousand
> subscribers, I paid close attention to what kind of traffic was going to
> the lists, and what the configuration brought to the table for the
> readers and the managers.]

Something that I considered bringing up, but didn't think it worth the
trouble.  But, since you did, I'll echo that.  I think Jeremiah's experience
with lists is very limited.  An overwhelming percentage of lists that I've
used operate in just the way we are.

> However, different people have different preferences.  This group is
> small enough and the list traffic is light enough that the other
> configuration (reply going to the list) won't degrade the quality of the
> content on the list <g>.

Agreed with the statement, but, again, I want to hear what all the users have
to say before taking action simply because of the way this subject was
initiated.  There's a lot to be said about respect and ettiquette that must be
maintained in a public forum, something that was a bit lacking as of late.

	--Arthur Corliss
	  Perl Monger/Alaska Perl Mongers
	  http://www.alaskapm.org/

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