[ale] Ale Netiquette...

[John Wells]

I know this has been suggested in the past, but I was wondering if we
could get a few guidelines added to ale.org regarding posting.  Those I'm
specifically interested in seeing as official "suggested" guidelines are:

1. Truncating all but the most relevant parts of a message/thread when
replying.  My Ale box is constantly filling up because folks don't
truncate when replying...so I get kb after kb of wasted space and wasted
bandwidth...

2. Maintaining a consistent subject line and not breaking the thread
unless it's truly appropriate to do so (radical change of direction,
side-thread, etc.).  Once I've filtered a thread that's varying widely
off-topic, someone always seems to manage to reply to the thread with a
different subject line, even though he/she is simply participating the the
thread, and not diverting it in some manner.  This is an illogical
approach to list threads and breaks any attempt at managing them.

For example (and not to single anyone out), say I post an OT thread
regarding going to a conference: "[ale] OT: group outing to conference
X?"...there will often be a number of replies that follow generally
accepted protocol (i.e., "RE: [ale] OT: group outing to conference X?")
and maintain the thread, and then 10 posts in someone will reply with
"[ale] Conference X", even though their message is in no way divergent
from the original thread.  Posts like this essentially disintegrate the
thread.

You'll forgive the crankiness...I missed my espresso this morning...

Thoughts are appreciated!

Thanks,
John


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