Coblist Change

[Shannon C. Dealy]

On Wed, 4 Nov 1998 million at best.com wrote:

> Hi Shannon!
> I often read questions & answers to & from others on the list that are
> relevant to me, without having to post a message myself. With the new
> change in "reply" configuration, does this mean that I will have to post a
> "me too" message in order to read the replies? Please advise, as I do not
> want to clutter up the list with unnecssary postings. Thanks for your efforts!

No, please DO NOT post "me too" messages to the coblist.  That is one of
the major reasons for this change to the coblist, to reduce/eliminate
"me too" and similar postings from the list.  With the new setup of the
list, the intent is that each person replying to a message will have to
make a concious decision that their reply is relevant to the list in
order to send their reply message to the list.  If they decide their
response is relevant and send it to the list, then you will see their
reply, if they decide that their response is not relevant to the list,
then you will not see their reply (unless you are the one they are
replying to).  This actually has been happening all along, but the old
configuration of the list made it more difficult for some people to reply
without sending the message to the list, and more importantly, the default
was for everyone's replies to be sent to the list, resulting in messages
being sent to the list unnecessarily or unintentionally.

This response is in fact an example of what should generally be happening
on the list.  The question above from Willow was sent directly to me
outside of the list in response to my list posting about a change in
configuration.  Willow apparently belived the question was not relevant  
(entirely appropriate) and did not send it to the list. I in turn decided
that my response to this question is relevant to the list so I send my
response to the list as well as to Willow.

Shannon C. Dealy
dealy at deatech.com