[chbot] Mailing list operation was: Test message.

[Mark Atherton]

Just been thinking about this a bit more...

I believe that one of the objectives of the group is to encourage 
growth and part of this involves communication.

Allowing a free flow of ideas using whatever-words-come-to-mind is 
much more likely to encourage discussion than if rigid naming and 
rules for presentation were enforced.

In my opinion, it is perfectly acceptable to say that as an 
individual, you have specific preferences, but attempting to enforce 
you own rules upon others is not acceptable.

-mark

============

Mike,

Thank you.

Yet again: A polite, and common-sense observation.

-mark

At 01:20 p.m. 19/11/2014, you wrote:
>Once again, I am far more pragmatic. I can't enforce my will on 
>others to do what they do or don't want to do, no matter how well 
>reasoned or logical my argument may be. I have to accept that once 
>in a while somebody might want to test that they can still receive 
>email from the list. I can ask them not to do so, but it isn't worth 
>fighting to the death (of either them or the quality of the emails 
>in the list).
>
>I am however in control of things my own little universe. Here is my 
>resolution to the problem of test emails:
>
>1. I consider if the amount of drivel I end up wasting time reading 
>is enough to make me blacklist any of the senders as them being a 
>person I just don't want to hear from again, as they never add 
>anything of value without it being wrapped up in a ton of crap.
>
>2. I consider adding a rule that if the Subject is "Test" or 
>contains the phrase "Mailing list operation was: Test message" then 
>send the message to my junk email folder, with the bonus that it 
>will work over all my email lists.
>
>In this case I chose the later. Problem solved for me. I can move 
>on. May I suggest everybody else who takes offence at test messages does too?
>
>Mike
>
>PS. Can we all be sure not to change the subject line for this 
>conversation? It might break my mail filter and I might end up 
>wasting time reading emails I don't want to receive :-)
>
>On 18.11.2014 19:33, Volker Kuhlmann wrote:
>>
>>
>>On Tue 18 Nov 2014 07:42:45 NZDT +1300, Richard Jones wrote:
>>>Are you arguing against test driven development?
>>
>>
>>Mailing list membership is not development.
>>"Test-driven" implies probing unknown territory, doing it for areas you
>>can just read up in the manual leaves the approach looking not so smart.
>>>Or re-observing that hindsight is an exact science?
>>
>>
>>No. It is knowledge accumulated in 20+ years of active mailing list
>>membership, and I'm happy to share. I'm a bit annoyed it has got lost,
>>it is the age of SMS (attention span limit: 160 characters) and
>>Faceplant(TM) (just click-me, no knowledge required, and the advertising
>>and surveillance industries love the ignorant).
>>>Maybe it is time to formulate some rules / guidelines regarding 
>>>posts to our email reflector?
>>
>>
>>I personally wouldn't think that to be worthwhile. Many mailing lists do
>>have one but they all tend to be very similar, and often
>>self-explanatory. Just link to a few :-) They all say "no test messages
>>to test your own email" though. Questions are encouraged, asking before
>>RTFM just because it's lazier is not.
>>>I'm quite happy to receive and respond to the odd test message if 
>>>someone has a problem.
>>
>>
>>Asking about problems is what the lists are for. My point was that test
>>messages are never necessary, and I used it as an opportunity to point
>>out "how things work".
>>
>>Mark, nice link, but on the Internet you can always find someone
>>supporting your position. That person doesn't look old enough to have
>>grown up with it. And it's called "mailman" the "mailing list manager"
>>(read the footer again) because it's a reflector, right? A mirror would
>>be a reflector, a mailing list manager would perhaps be a
>>duplicator/auto-forwarder. It would be a reflector if you got your own
>>posting back, which, as noted, isn't default setting.
>>
>>Now I'll go back to project work... ;-)
>>
>>Volker
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Chchrobotics mailing list Chchrobotics at lists.linuxnut.co.nz
>http://lists.ourshack.com/mailman/listinfo/chchrobotics
>Mail Archives: http://lists.ourshack.com/pipermail/chchrobotics/
>Web site: http://kiwibots.org
>Meetings 3rd Monday each month.
>
>When replying, please edit your Subject line to reflect new content.