[buug] Web page update

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Zeke Krahlin (ezekielk at iname.com):

> Your tips on mailing list netiquette are enlightening, and a must for
> Internet newbies. My recent messages to you, however, do *not seem to
> also go to our list.

Hmm.  I see that you're using a Mail User Agent (MUA) called Phoenix
Mail.  It seems likely that you'll have to work around its lack of a
send-to-group function until you find another MUA.  (I like mutt, but
it's a highly individual matter.)

> If I go back to sending my replies *to the list, am I correct in
> assuming that it would also be sent to all members's mailboxes,
> including yours?  (Or I can send a "cc" to the list, if my reply is to
> you.)

Well, yes, if the mailing-list software is working correctly.

> I agree with the non-munging approach...but it does seem only fair
> that a list message with an individual's e-mail in the "to" box should
> also be expected to automatically cc the reply to the list. 

Think of it this way:  Mailing lists are a medium whose one-to-many
model poses difficult demands on e-mail software.  E-mail was designed
to handle the one-to-one communication model, not the one-to-many one.
So, some technical awkwardness is not surprising.  The trick is to
distribute the inevitable awkwardness where it will do the least damage,
most of the time.

After mulling over the technical and social pitfalls Chip Rosenthal's
essay (and the related forum) describe, most people tend to decide he's
on balance correct -- at least for most situations, and conduct their
list behaviour accordingly.

As to this list, itself, I believe it's operating perfectly.  You just
aren't using an MUA with a group-reply function, and so need to bear
that in mind.

> Do you think, for a *nix newbie like me, it would be better to jump
> from Mandrake to Debian, than from Mandrake directly to FreeBSD?

Gee, I don't know.  My own approach was that you lose nothing but a bit
of your time, any time you try a new distribution (or other version of
Unix).

However, anyone who's really new to Linux would be well advised to 
browse some of the good introductory material, including Matt Welsh's
(et al.) book _Running Linux_.

-- 
Cheers,                             "Ceterum censeo Linux propaganda est."
Rick Moen                                        -- Seth David Schoen
rick at linuxmafia.com