[PLUG-TALK] Scot Craighead's mailer

Russell Senior seniorr at aracnet.com
Fri Jun 21 18:04:22 UTC 2002


>>>>> "Jeremy" == Miller, Jeremy <JMILLER at ci.albany.or.us> writes:

Jeremy> But it still isn't absolute, especially since you say he is on
Jeremy> vacation.  He might not be spending it at home, and the
Jeremy> connection he has access to might not be his own.  [...]

That is a possibility, and might explain it.

I am also slightly bewildered how a member of a Unix/GNU/Linux
enthusiast group doesn't have (and wouldn't demand) access to a box of
such composition that would allow him to routinely use a non-suckie
email client.  Not impossible, just seems improbable somehow.

Jeremy> The root of the key word you use is "presume".  Not bad in and
Jeremy> of itself, but not the best grounds for being somewhat rude.

Posting private email to a public mailing list is _also_ somewhat
rude.  When you do that, intentionally or unintentionally, or through
negligence (i.e., failing to take steps to provide yourself a
non-suckie email client), it seems to me that you risk a certain
measure of "abuse".  Sometimes those steps cost money, which is why I
made the reference to his employer's compensation.  

For me, those steps include having an account on a machine I can
always secure shell to and just arrange to read some or all of my mail
there.

I felt justified in "abusing" Scot for his error as a way of providing
negative feedback (i.e., "that action caused pain ... don't do that
again").  It was a kind of operant conditioning, that would help guide
the overall system to converge on "optimal behavior".  Reflecting now,
I have not convinced myself whether or not this kind of tit-for-tat is
always such a good idea, even given its useful features.

-- 
Russell Senior         ``The two chiefs turned to each other.        
seniorr at aracnet.com      Bellison uncorked a flood of horrible       
                         profanity, which, translated meant, `This is
                         extremely unusual.' ''                      




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