On Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 09:53:07AM +0800, Penguin Lover Mark David Dumlao squawked: > As I said there aren't even any terms to search for when you're > getting ignored. If I had known that the problem was html mails from > the start, then i would have already corrected the issue before > searching the archive.
You are still under one assumption: that if you had sent your e-mail in plain text, you won't be ignored. Granted that you will be ignored less if you send e-mail in plain text compared to HTML, it is not always the case. Of the threads that I've started on this list, at least a couple in recent memory has been just me posting a question, receiving no response, and me posting the solution after I bit the bullet and tried to figure out the problem myself. Sometimes you just run into a problem that nobody knows how to solve. I am one of those people who dislike HTML e-mails in general, but that doesn't make me send all HTML mails into /dev/null. I have a mailcap entry to dump HTML to text using lynx and so I can read the e-mail at least using Mutt. Despite my distaste for HTML e-mails, I don't go around broadcasting it: I only mention it if I am responding to a query that I have an inkling of an idea about how to answer, when the OP decided to send an HTML e-mail. So why this anecdote? The point is that I read almost every e-mail on this list. I've seen your original post. I've see your repost. And I've seen your query about why you are getting ignored. For me, the answer is simple: I have no freaking clue how to solve your problem. And I suspect the same goes for a lot of people on this list. Many (dare I say most) people on this list don't care for HTML e-mails; many people on this list use a mail client or a mailcap that is capable of dealing HTML e-mails. Granted there are a few stalwarts who do ignore HTML e-mails as a policy, I doubt the number is as large as you are imagining it. If you have been paying attention at all the past two years you've subscribed to this list (something you admitted to not doing), you would've noticed that very few questions were *ignored* by the list. And you would have noticed also that many (if not most) of those questions were written in plain text. And that plenty of the questions posted in HTML received answers, the first three of which often including a polite request to turn off HTML e-mails. And lastly that virtually all those questions that have no followups were rather esoteric in nature and hard to answer. So don't be such a pompous ass. We didn't ignore you because we don't like you. There's never a policy by the gentoo-user mailing list to automatically, collectively ignore all e-mails sent in HTML. We are not that well organized. And we are certainly not the borg collective. It is a lot more likely that your query received no response because no one know how to answer or how to diagnose your problem. What do you in fact propose the FAQ say? That we prefer plain-text emails? Or that "if you post in HTML, there's a chance that some members may ignore your posts"? It sounds to me from this thread that you are advocating more of the latter rather than the former (that you are pissed off because your post may have been ignored because of formatting and not of content). And to me a warning like that is just plain silly. You can equally well add a disclaimer that "Joerg Schilling will chew you out if you use cdrkit instead of cdrtools" (Joerg, no disrespect meant at all by that, just stating a fact that you will in fact do so). So you are pissed that you got ignored. Well, tough. Stop making it sound like hordes of people have came before you and were ignored because of their HTML e-mails, and that unless this reform passes hordes more of people will suffer the same fate. It just ain't true. While I agree that it may be a good idea to have an FAQ somewhere for the mailing lists discussion basic netiquette, your rather personal vendetta is blowing this way out of proportion. Regards, W P.S. I really am not that surprised that your query went unanswered. I don't know whether this is statistically true or not, but from reading e-mails on this list I have the feeling that users on this list gravitates more towrad KDE than GNOME. I personally use neither. And don't y'all dare start a KDE/GNOME flameware because of this postscript. ;p -- "What are you talking about? " "Never mind, eat the fruit. " "You know, this place almost looks like the Garden of Eden. " "Eat the fruit. " "Sounds quite like it too. " Sortir en Pantoufles: up 745 days, 1:02
