The exchange that took place last week with respect to some questions
posed by a new list member took me somewhat by surprize when I
returned from a trip and caught up on my email.
I think we all need to try to be patient when responding to questions
from a new list member who may have become confused in reading not
only the RFCs, but also the traffic that the list produces, sometimes
rather voluminously! I suspect that the use of some terms from the
PGP arena probably caused some folks to regard the questions as not so
well formed as one might like. I admit that I too have lost my
patience with (more experienced) list members who sometimes make
critical comments that are posed as rhetorical questions. However, I
think it behooves us to give a new contributor the benefit of the doubt
when respoinding. I thank Bob Jueneman for taking the time to construct
a thoughtful response to the questions raised.
This list was originally established for developers of PEM, but it
clearly has a much broader readership today. I don't believe that
creating a separate list for users and would-be users (non-developers)
is worthwhile, as the development community needs feedback from users
and having separate lists might only require that many of us read two
lists on this topic, rather than one, increase cross-postings, etc.
So, given the diverse list membershop we have, I think it important
for us to be polite in responding to genuine questions from someone
who is not thoroughly steeped in the PEM literature. Conversely, it
also is good form for new list members to ask questions that avoid
sounding like they have not "done their homework" or posing questions
that sound like criticisms.
Steve