Posting etiquette

[Mark A. Mandel]

First a definition: A digest on a mailing list is a compilation of all
the messages sent in a single day (or by some other criterion/a), mailed
out as one mailing. My status report from the listserver says:

   DIGEST You receive list digests, rather than individual postings

This definition also applies to most mailing lists that I know of.

Here is the start of Damien Hall's message on "Posting etiquette",
copied and pasted exactly from the digest that was in my inbox this
morning:

        >>>>>
Date:    Sun, 29 Feb 2004 13:10:38 -0500
From:    Damien Hall <halldj at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
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 see Damien's name and email address at the top of his post, as on
every post in every digest. I don't understand why he doesn't. Maybe he
has, perhaps unwittingly, chosen an option to suppress them. I quote
from the welcome message I received on subscribing:

        >>>>>
More information on LISTSERV commands can be found in the LISTSERV
reference card, which you can retrieve by sending an "INFO REFCARD"
command to LISTSERV at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU.
        <<<<<

Sam Clements asks:

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

I can only answer for this value of "one". This list is professionally
relevant to me, and I subscribe at my office, where I keep my email
connection open all day. I can't afford to be continually distracted by
incoming ADS-L (or other list) emails.

The LINGUIST List sends out several issues each day, many of which are
compilations, or "digests" in the above sense. They also offer a
"LINGUIST Lite" option, which simply lists the author and topic of each
issue and a link to click on. For a similar reason, I take their Lite
option.

-- Mark A. Mandel
   Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania