Roberto C. Sánchez <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Sat, May 19, 2007 at 05:19:31PM -0400, Miles Fidelman wrote: > > M. Fioretti wrote: > > >No, sorry, the problem is a concrete, objective one: > > > > > >* everybody with any metered connection _pays_ real money > > >every time these characters rerun their show > > > > > > > > It's called IMAP - the bandwidth and time to download headers > > is negligible, even over a dial-up. > > > There are also multiple solutions which allow downloading just > headers and deleting messages from the server over a POP > connection.
I've been guilty of facilitating some OT'ness since I joined the list a couple weeks ago. I have been amazed at the sheer volume of it, though, and have lately been mostly trying to stick only to on-topic things I could help with. Since joining, however, I have been referred to as a "user wizard" once or twice since I do things like RTFM before somebody else tells me to and have some familiarity with how to do things and also how to use command-line tools (but don't develop software or anything, so am not a real wiz.). I bring this up only to give perspective when I say that I have no idea how to set up POP to do that and could not tell you the difference between POP and IMAP, except that I think IMAP is newer and I've heard it's better in a lot of ways. Also, what about the trouble inherent in migrating to a new email address? If somebody's current provider provides only POP, should they be forced to switch to another provider just for the privilege of being on this list? >From what I've seen in the past couple of weeks, a lot of the posters on here are brand new to Debian, or even to Linux! They may not know what a manpage is, let alone how to find one or how to properly search for reliable documentation online. And it's entirely possible that on top of being new to GNU/Linux, they may not know how to set up a mail client to "play nice" in the way you're suggesting. I appreciate that it's a good thing to know, but is it really a good idea to make it so that anyone new to the list who may have bandwidth limitations/costs has to first learn how to do that before subscribing? Especially since to actually find the documentation on this, they would probably have to use the Internet--in other words, they would have to browse a number of websites in order to find the exact information necessary (we're assuming this is a user who doesn't know where to begin, remember--but even on one website there may be several pages to go through to find the right documentation, especially on email providers' websites). Shouldn't, instead, the responsible, experienced users on the list make life that much easier on everyone else? I guess the question is exactly where the responsibility falls; personally, I'm inclined to say it falls on the frequent poster. I understand that you want to express your views, but there are less public fora that might be better, ones dedicated to such topics, in fact. So I guess basically the take-home message should just be "be considerate; don't put the burden of learning how to properly ignore you on the user; take some responsibility." I don't think any public apologies are in order, just maybe thinking twice before posting. Amy P.S.: Sorry this was so long. -- Go climb a gravity well!
