Subject: Re: Beating the dead horse again about VB
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no>
Date: 1999/03/20
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3130916627109573@naggum.no>

* cbarry@2xtreme.net (Christopher R. Barry)
| Marcel,
| 
| There's nothing wrong with thanking people for providing you with
| useful information, but do it via _private email_. Some people pay for
| their bandwidth by-the-minute (not me), and having to download many
| articles you have before only quoted with 2 lines isn't cool, whether
| you're paying by-the-minute or not.
| 
| That's one reason, but there are others.

  coincidentally, this is why the Net is seen as hostile and some people
  think it's only for people who argue all the time.  whereas the old
  etiquette rule was "reprimand in private, compliment in public" may work
  well for social interaction, the exact opposite works on USENET.  just
  like Christopher, I get _real_ tired of seeing people agree with or thank
  or applaud eachother.  the archetypical newbie USENET articles says no
  more than "me too!", and it's a reason we don't want them: people agree
  on a _tremendous_ amount of issues.  thanks to the absence of thank you
  notes, every single reader of an article may get _something_ out of it.
  if they were to publish their thanks, chances are that none of _those_
  articles would bring anything new to the world.  however, directed at the
  author, it _is_ very valuable.

    Naggum's rule of optimal electronic communication:
    be harsh and critical in public, and kind and rewarding in private

  (I don't know whether I first formulated this or not, but people have
  given me credit for it so I guess I can, too.)

#:Erik