"MAILING LIST NETIQUETTE" Page 1, 2, 3, 4
Other Hints How to Behave Well
When Armano joined the lang-dang list again, he chose the digest version. After some trial and error (the errors being complaints by others), he found this had some implications for sending mail to the list.
Quote Wisely
When he replied to the list, his email program happily quoted the text of the message he was replying to; this meant quoting a lot. Only a relatively small portion of this was relevant for his reply. Armano deleted all the remaining text and kept only the essential part which he was directly referring to.
Whether on a digest or not, it is generally a good idea to quote only relevant parts of the message you are replying to, deleting all other content including signatures and irrelevant parts and possibly streamlining or summarazing the content of the thread, your context.
Avoid Redundancy
Receiving the lang-dang list as a digest had another disadvantage, Armano discovered. Since the digest was sent out only once a day, he could never been sure whether a question had already been answered by someone else or what follow-ups a message had evoked.
To avoid duplicate content, Armano often wrote a reply but not sent it until he had received the next day's edition of the lang-dang digest. If his message would not be redundant, he sent it right away, otherwise he deleted it (or kept it if it was oh so wonderful). If a lot of people are subscribed to the digest and apply Armano's tactics this may, unfortunately, result in duplicate messages nevertheless.
Again, Armano has discovered a rule that applies to good mailing list behavior: check the list for replies before sending a follow-up to avoid duplicate content.
Changing Subjects
One of the threads Marina created on the lang-dang list was the (initial) one about Ouest, Est, and Paris. Soon, the discussion was all about "embrasser", "embarrasser", their English equivalents and their relationship. Marina thought it was time to change the "Subject:" header line from "Re: Oest Side Story" to "Embarrassing Embrace (was: Re: Oest Side Story)" (the "Re:" stands for "Reply:" and indicates just that).
In order to ensure consistency and to make "navigation" in the messages passed through a mailing list it is a good idea to change the Subject: when the subject changes so that the "Subject:" header line corresponds to the content of the message. The new line should consist of both the new and the old subject, the latter in braces (embraced!) and with "was:" prepended as shown in the example above. If you reply to a message where the "Subject:" line was changed you can (should) remove the braces as they are no longer necessary.
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"The question was once put to him, how we ought to behave to our friends; and the answer he gave was, `As we should wish our friends to behave to us."
Diogenes Laertius |
