Author: "Alan K. Stebbens"
<aks(_at_)anywhere(_dot_)engr(_dot_)sgi(_dot_)com>
Original-Date: Sat, 25 Oct 1997 16:53:53 -0700
Message-ID:
<199710252353(_dot_)QAA01786(_at_)anywhere(_dot_)engr(_dot_)sgi(_dot_)com>
I find that these kinds of requests particularly ironic, since
one of the well-known utilities of procmail is the "formail -D"
filter, which can be used to remove duplicates.
For the record, I've never asked this of folks, and have been using the
dups-check for some time.
However, it has also been pointed out that there are some broken mailers out
there which do not generate unique Message-IDs, so I am now saving
duplicates and checking them. formail -D may, on rare occasion, cause for
lost mail from someone sending me email from a broken mailer.
I've observed that some people favor replies to the list, even for
trivial answers, usually for the sake of appearances. That is, by
replying often to the list, rather than only directly to the neophyte
sender, the "helpful" person is also implicitly advertising how
"helpful" they are, like peacocks spreading their tailfeathers for all
to see.
I like replies to go back to the list, and send replies back to the list,
for 2 reasons:
1) it lets me know if the question has already been answered. No sense
re-explaining the wheel
2) your problem today may be my problem tomorrow. If the replies go to the
list, I'll have the answer when it becomes my problem, thus reducing the
traffic on the list when I can find your answer in my archive. My procmail
box is 25 megs and has saved y'all from having to answer many questions over
and over -- several of which I had no real interest at the time, but only
later.
I hope that this has been helpful.
It has been, I think it illustrates the point and the shortcomings.
TjL