On Tue, 21 Sep 2004, Keith Moore wrote:
I was responding to a message from you, and the principal purpose of my
sending the message was to provide information to you.
Well that was not the way I saw it.
Perhaps it has not occurred to you that your opinions are rather, uh,
distant from those of most other participants.
Well, I see it the same way as Charles. Perhaps this is a left-pond vs
right-pond cultural thing. In any event, unless Charles and I are the
only two people in the whole world who see it that way, it seems that
there is no hope of trying to make the nice[*] distinction you were
trying to draw.
There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but it does mean that when
someone responds to a message from you, they may be responding
specifically to opinions that you have expressed, rather than to the
list in general.
I'm afraid I just don't get that at all. When I respond to a list, sure,
I'm responding to a particular posting, but I see it as part of the
general discussion, just as if I stood up in a meeting and said my
piece.
Philip
[*] I use "nice" in the original meaning of "fine, close, fastidious".
--
Philip Hazel University of Cambridge Computing Service,
ph10(_at_)cus(_dot_)cam(_dot_)ac(_dot_)uk Cambridge, England. Phone: +44
1223 334714.