Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2020 13:56:46 -0400 (EDT) From: doug <doug@fledge.watson.org> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Infinite stupid threads ... Message-ID: <alpine.BSF.2.20.2006181323320.97143@fledge.watson.org> In-Reply-To: <20200618093910.44fa9ead@archlinux> References: <alpine.BSF.2.22.419.2006171931420.1447@fbsd.local> <CAHu1Y71w2A3qx944T=FM9EfQtE2NyGcwcUAtfeXAfY3MZSpxHw@mail.gmail.com> <alpine.BSF.2.22.419.2006180652160.909@fbsd.local> <20200618093910.44fa9ead@archlinux>
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On Thu, 18 Jun 2020, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
> On Thu, 18 Jun 2020 07:07:05 +0000 (UTC), Roderick wrote:
>> Normaly, one takes emails seriously, at least more seriously than
>> small talk forums, one reads every email, or is aware of every
>> incomming mail. That is why I read emails in the order they arrive,
>> I do not use threading with email.
>
> Full ACK. Btw. I sort by date, too and only sort by thread on demand.
>
>> Makes the mailing list less serious, people take emails less serious,
>> concentrate less on what is being written, at the end filter them to
>> trash or dev/null without even reading them.
>
> Yesno. I dislike plain technical mailing lists without any small talk.
>
> Under normal circumstances it's reasonable to read the body of an email
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> with a subject like "Will FreeBSD migrate away from BSD-style init?" and
> to reply. At the moment it's safe to redirect emails with similar
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> subjects to /dev/null , without even considering to read the emails'
> bodies.
>
> When there's room for small talk, it temporarily could become a
> problem, even without provocateurs, so for a short time it's necessary
> to take measures, at least if provocateurs are involved.
>
> Btw. a nice measure for a seldom happening emergency case is to shut
> down a mailing list for 3 days. Usually nobody needs to get banned and
> after 3 days everything is ok again.
First, I want to apologize for the Etiquette thread. I did ask a question
about including CCs because if like top posting there was a general
consensus, I was fine either way. I stupidly included a link that was not
really relevant to my question. That said I largely agree with the points
above. However we "live" in the community we have rather than the one we
might wish for. By that I only mean FreeBSD-questions.
There are more than 100 FreeBSD mailing lists. I selected a set where one
might think some of the issues might be discussed. These are
advocacy (28)
current (1,306)
desktop (208) 181
hackers (792)
hardware (10)
stable (528)
questions (3,086)
The numbers are the number of posts since 1/1/20. In the case of Desktop,
181 were discussing bugs, mostly a bug actually. So that really leaves
questions as the point of entry for people wondering about FreeBSD,
newbies, and people like most of us with some experience that have a
question.
I take several things from the thread, sometimes it will take a life of its
own. In this case having nothing to do with my question, but I think in
general that's fine. People feel very passionate about things and passion
often is the inverse of civility. I'm old enough to think that's too bad,
but it is certainly reflective of social media. As we are a community (with
a purpose) I would hope we could raise the bar a bit.
My history with this list is the less I knew (hopefully in the early days),
the more help I got. Now because most of my issues might be better posted
in advocacy, desktop and maybe hardware, I have to craft a question that
peeks someone's interest. I do not actively follow stable or current
because I gave up on being able to contribute in these areas and mostly I
can just read questions and find something that will point me in the right
direction. I think my experience is the norm. I do not find the occasional
"Infinite stupid thread" a large price for the value of questions (to me).
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