Russell King wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 10, 2004 at 11:40:50AM -0800, Steve Lamb wrote:
>> No. The question of whether or not they can post to a list without being
>>subscribed is not the one to be asked. The one to be asked is can they *READ*
>>the list without being subscribed. If the answer is yes then the onus is on
>>them to make the effort to do so.
> That shows a nice lack of understanding of the problem (see below.)
No, it shows a capacity of thinking beyond the confines of the past.
> By reading a web page and finding an address to report bugs to. For
> example, see the kerberos lists and web pages at MIT, particlarly the
> kerberos bug reporting list.
> http://web.mit.edu/kerberos/www/mail-lists.html
Ok, with you so far.
> It is _all_ about whether people need to be subscribed to post, not
> whether they read the list.
Read closely, Russell. I didn't say that they read the list. I said
*CAN* they read the list.
> Here's a practical example. You're a user of some piece of software.
Mozilla Thunderbird, Debian in general, Sylpheed-claws...
> There is a developers mailing list for this software, and it's high
> volume with maybe 400 messages a day. You don't want your mail box
> filled with 400 irrelevant messages per day, yet you want to report
> a bug to the list and receive the resolution.
Oddly enough there's this thing called a bug tracker. Bugzilla, Debian's
and Sourceforge's being the three I am most familiar with. I submit a bug to
the tracker, the tracker submits it to the list, the developers do their
thing, report to the tracker the tracker CCs me. I only get relevant
information and not the vast cruft that the developers hash out between
themselves. More importantly it also provides the ability to be removed from
the discussion of the bug. Again something that cannot happen with a lazy
reply-to-all replier.
> Now, consider the consequences if you do not CC: the bug reporter.
> Will you know if your proposed fix actually had the desired effect?
Yes.
a: When implemented you get to see how it works.
b: In the case of the MIT list above I submit the following URLs:
<
http://diswww.mit.edu:8008/menelaus.mit.edu/krb5-bugs/>
<
http://diswww.mit.edu:8008/menelaus.mit.edu/krb5-bugs/>
Can you read the list? Yes.
Can you find relevant discussion? Yes.
Sorry. Developers apparently not using a bug-tracker but still providing
a method to read and search the list does not make a compelling argument for
CCing on that list much less other lists.
--
Steve C. Lamb | I'm your priest, I'm your shrink, I'm your
PGP Key: 8B6E99C5 | main connection to the switchboard of souls.
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