Lawrence Clemens wrote about Jerry Ekegren's wonderful vacation program:
> I don't think you are making friends!

<rant mode="BOFH" flavor="kindly persecution">

Of course we are.  You see, we, the appointed email list etiquette
police, have taken it upon ourselves to maintain some semblance of
sanity on this forum.

> Not everyone on this list has control over their mail server
> configuration. 

Ah, I see that yet another luser -- that does stand for "local user", by
the way -- has a misconception about who has "control" over the vacation
program.  Vacation programs are most often NOT server-based.  They are
usually configured by the user, and that user doesn't always read the
instructions or use their valuable resources, their systems
administrator...

> Blasting these people solves nothing and likely drives them away.

Or it becomes a wake-up call that such automated replies are not welcome
on the email list.  Taken in context, I don't see how anyone would be
"driven away".  If they are driven away, then they are obviously a
little too thin skinned for this group.

> If linux is to gain wide acceptance some of it's users will have to
> give up their holier than thou attitudes about things such as the
> occasional html email, the occasional out of office notification, the
> occasional top post, etc.

Again, you are taking things out of context.  This is NOT a Linux issue,
this is an email list etiquette issue.  I've seen a number of kindly
notices on the list for people to shape up their etiquette and actually
THINK before posting the aforementioned crap.  HTML email, autoreply
messages, and top posts are definitely not welcome, however occassional
they might be.  If we do not express our disapproval when these
occurrances happen, how will anyone know?

Shame is a great motivator, but usually we don't have to resort to that.
Regardless, the average profile of the TCLUG list member is that of a
knowledgable, sysadmin type with a precondition to be short with
clueless lusers.  Don't hold it against us.  We work with lusers all day
long, and to have to deal with them on the list is not our idea of a
constructive forum for Linux.

I'm not going to get into the Noise:Signal rant.  You've all heard it
before.
</rant>

-- 
Chad Walstrom <chewie at wookimus.net>           http://www.wookimus.net/
           assert(expired(knowledge)); /* core dump */

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