Glenn Johansson <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU> wrote:

> It is obvious that 80% of the people who are posting to PICLIST
> don't know what types of messages belong in a mailing-list.
>
> The purpose of a mailing list: to send...
>
> 1) new information regarding the mailing list subject
> or...
> 2) important, difficult and intelligent questions regarding the
> mailing list subject

    Glenn:

    Looking through the PICLIST archives, I see that -- excluding this
    message -- you've posted five messages to the PICLIST in the last
    three months.

    By your criteria, two of the five -- one was a feeble attempt at
    humor and the other told where one could find sat-TV hacking
    programs on the net -- were inappropriate for posting to this
    mailing list.

    People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

> A mailing list should generally have no more than a couple of
> messages per day, at the most.

    There are about 1200 PICLIST subscribers and 365 days in a year,
    so that means that if we were to limit the number of messages to
    two per day, each of us gets to post one message every 19 months.

    Good idea.

> Who would want to receive his morning newspaper article by article
> in hundreds of envelopes addressed to him personally?

    You're right; not many people would want that.  Fortunately,
    you're not the first person to notice this problem; if you want
    to receive an entire day's worth of PICLIST postings in one
    e-mail message (just like a newspaper), you can subscribe to the
    "digest" version of the list.

    Instructions are in the "welcome" letter that you received when
    you first subscribed.

    -Andy

=== Andrew Warren - fastfwd@ix.netcom.com
=== Fast Forward Engineering, Vista, California
=== http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/2499