Posting etiquette

[Sam Clements]

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

At least 10 people will be pissed off that I included the whole text of the
original message to which I'm replying.  At least 10 people will be pleased
that I'm doing this.

Question:  WHY does one just get the digest instead of the whole list?

Sam Clements(who sometimes signs posts as SC)



----- Original Message -----
From: "Damien Hall" <halldj at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, February 29, 2004 1:10 PM
Subject: Posting etiquette


> Could I please, fervently, renew my plea for people to make their posts
clear?
> I've posted about this before, making two specific requests:
>
> 1.  Please would EVERYONE ALWAYS sign ALL their posts?
> 2.  Please would people mention the subject of their post in the body of
the
> post, ie not just in the subject-line of the e-mail?
>
> What was a minor niggle is becoming a bit more of an annoyance, due to the
fact
> that if you receive the digest version of this list, the individual posts
don't
> have their subject-lines or their senders at the top of them.  I think
this is
> a fascinating and extremely useful list but the problem with people not
> identifying themselves or their subjects was emphasised this week when I
made a
> cut-and-paste compilation of the thread on the origin of 'gay' for
'homosexual'
> and the associated lisp stereotype, to send to a friend not on this list.
I
> had to apologise to him for not being able to attribute about half of the
posts
> to anyone.  In some cases I was personally able to guess who the sender
might
> have been but didn't want to reify my guesses in an off-list e-mail, so I
just
> apologised.  He said that the compilation was very useful and interesting
to
> him, but I think it would have been even better had I been able to
identify all
> the posters and so follow people's individual threads.
>
> I would like to ask everyone, whatever their subject is, and even if they
post
> every single day, if they would please always sign their posts.  I'm aware
that
> most people on this list are probably able to identify the frequent
posters
> with alomst complete accuracy, but unsigned posts greatly reduce the
outside
> utility of the list, I think, and, even for those of us on the list, it
would
> be nice never to have to guess who had said what.
>
> Many thanks.
>
> Damien Hall
> University of Pennsylvania
>