Well, you got me into this too.... i am someone who reads the phonebook when a new one comes out (at least the first 40 or so pages) but know not all are that way. The bandwidth saved by not sending someone his own post for this small list is small compared to the trafic that newbies and clever people like you generate because of it You want something bandwidth saving...... write an autoreply generator scanning new messages for things like "unsubscribe" "echo" "missing post" that reply's with an faq message and tells the person that if they still want to post that message to confirm it Just my $0.25 (inflation is back) Peter van Hoof pvh@vertonet.com -----Original Message----- From: Paul B. Webster VK2BZC To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU Date: Friday, May 21, 1999 7:45 PM Subject: Re: not showing up on list. >Nigel Orr wrote: > >> Sorry Paul, for interrupting your rant, but wasn't there an ADMIN post >> a week or two ago to say that PIClist default was going to be set to >> ACK/REPRO for new members, to avoid just the confusion that started >> this thread? Maybe I just dreamt it... I'm sure you read the ADMIN >> posts thoroughly ;-) > > You are dead right. That was indeed Mark's intention and has indeed >been implemented for new subscribers. It would however be foolish to >*impose* it on the vast majority of current subscribers who already >expect a certain behaviour (having seen this discussion *every* three >weeks). > >> It seems like a sensible default- when I post to a list, I assume >> that, as I'm on the list, I'll see a copy. > > *Only* because that's what other lists commonly do. My bias is that >this was IIRC, the first list to which I subscribed, and is still that >from which I receive most traffic. I therefore consider it the Gold >Standard. If one has just graduated from ICQ or newsgroups, one may >well see it differently. > > And yes, I do realize that the echo makes it easier to file ones >replies, but therein is a personal variance as to how much traffic you >choose to file. Like most others, I used to file a lot but ... > >> Problem is that programmers are just so darned clever they see this >> neat feature, which doesn't really help anyone, which they can add, to >> remove the person who sent the post from the distribution list that >> the post goes to... it _must_ have been a Microsoft idea, surely... > > Now *THAT* is really being rude! > > The change to the default was made for no reason other than >capitulation to minimize this very "Whinge => RTFM" traffic. It's >referred to as the "LCD" and this is the mathematical term, not the PIC >one. > > It's just common sense but if that isn't popular (and in general >nowadays, it isn't PC), so be it. >-- > Cheers, > Paul B.