Date: Sat, 13 Jun 1998 10:53:32 +1000 From: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> To: art@neilson.ddns.org Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: [Fwd: FreeBSD] Message-ID: <19980613105332.60305@welearn.com.au> In-Reply-To: <35815F0B.77D5F80@neilson.ddns.org>; from Arthur W. Neilson III on Fri, Jun 12, 1998 at 07:02:03AM -1000 References: <35815F0B.77D5F80@neilson.ddns.org>
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On Fri, Jun 12, 1998 at 07:02:03AM -1000, Arthur W. Neilson III wrote:
> Geez these people don't have a clue. This guy thought I was responsible
> for the FreeBSD web site 'cause I responded to his posting to the
> mailing list.
Of course he would. He wrote to "the FreeBSD address" and you responded.
People get the mailing list's address from the web site, without seeing
anything to suggest that they're writing to a mailing list. The address is
given as FreeBSD's address, as if it gets filtered through some receptionist
and ends up on the desk of the man with all the power. At other places it
looks like a direct link to a single kind sympathetic support person. It
happens all the time, and gives us some wonderful opportunities. On rare
occasions it can work against those of us who don't realise, as happened to
you, but we all have the opportunity to abuse the situation too. Haven't you
seen how it works?
What you do is this. When one of these misled web browsing visitors asks
something, especially if they're obviously expecting an official response
from an individual, you jump in and reply to them. Give them an answer in
strong confident tones and don't reveal anything about yourself, your role,
or the mailing list. No, you don't have to say that you run the place, just
talk with a confident air and they'll put 2 and 2 together. Some people talk
like that all the time anyway, so what have you done wrong? :-) To be more
convincing, you can use the magic "we" word, as in "we prefer you to..." or
"we would like..." which makes you sound so high and mighty that you speak
for your whole staff. You have to be quick though, or they'll think someone
else who replied is the manager.
Keep your eyes open for anyone with something to offer to "you" (meaning
FreeBSD Inc) or wanting to discuss something confidential with you, where
you can interpret that to mean you personally. In this case, simply reply
using "we" (meaning the list, of course?) and again they'll assume you're
speaking with authority on behalf of the whole organisation. After all, the
misunderstanding is their fault, isn't it?
As for newbies who have plucked up the courage to confess and explain their
stupidity to what they think is an individual, grab them! Give them a firm
thwack on the bum and tell them that they should be better behaved on
mailing lists (what's that??). Publicly admonish them for doing the wrong
thing or neglecting some doc (don't give its location or check that the info
is in fact in there), give them instructions that will cause them to write
an even stupider reply, humiliate them in the presence of the worldwide
community that they'd thought might accept them as a valued member one day.
Oooh, what fun!
OK, maybe nobody does these things deliberately :-) but whilever we forget
that the most naive posters to this list have no idea that it is going to a
list, we'll be getting ourselves into these situations just as deeply as if
we'd planned it all in advance. Maybe we need some way to distinguish
between messages that come from different places, I dunno.
We sincerely regret any embarrassment this incident may have caused.
--
Regards,
-*Sue*-
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