RE: ADMIN: From the TECHWR-L Mailbag

[Kevin McLauchlan <kmclauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>]

The following is a response to a number of people, 
and merely uses this ADMIN post as a convenient 
starting point.

> Yes, TECHWR-L has administrators. We're the ones
> who posted three--count 'em THREE--ADMIN messages
> in the past week about various threads being off topic, with
> suggestions for alternative ways to communicate such material.

I know that authority universally hates to be questioned, 
and that those who dare to do so are inviting uninviting 
consequences. I also question authority as a matter of 
personal philosophy which has become reflex. 
Nevertheless, I do put some thought into it, as I have 
into the following.

> We are setting repeat off-topic posters to Moderated status.

I'll be interested to see if this message gets through, 
unmolested.
 
> Often it's a fine line between on-topic and off-topic, and we
> encourage the community to moderate their own postings
> and ask questions about appropriateness if they're not sure.
> 
> What's been going on in the past few days, however, goes
> beyond people disregarding the purpose of this forum. Yesterday
> alone, the TECHWR-L list has more than 160 messages posted
> to it--160! 

I get that many every day from OOo Users list and from the 
opensuse list, among several other high-volume lists to 
which I subscribe. In all cases, I remain subscribed to 
those lists because I derive value from them. Apparently, 
so do a LOT of people. In all cases, I ignore the messages 
that I don't want to read. In very technical lists, I ignore 
the posts about aspects of the tech that I'm not using 
(for example, I don't have a 64-bit Linux machine, or 
a PowerPC-based machine, so roughly a third of the posts 
on opensuse are not useful to me).

> How many of us have time to wade through 160 messages, 

Now, you're talking about moderators who feel the need 
to read every post to their list. As a moderator, you 
do have a point. But on behalf of everybody else, maybe 
not so much.
Everybody else... really, EVERYbody else has a modern mail 
reading program that lets them set rules/filters to handle 
incoming mail. Not a single one of those people is in any 
way forced to manually/eyeball-ly(?) deal with every last 
incoming message.

Naturally, any mail from a high-volume list resides in your 
inbox no longer than the microseconds that it takes your 
filters to shunt it into a list-specific folder. Right?
When you open that folder and see that some messages contain 
a subject that you prefer not to see, you highlight ONE 
such message, click the column header (to sort by Subject), 
then you hold down the Shift Key, scroll to the last offending 
message (thereby selecting them all), and press the Delete key.
Done.

If more come in and it looks onerous to keep mass-deleting 
them, you can construct a filter in about 15-seconds to 
consign them all to ... er... heck before you ever even see them.

Even those who (foolishly, in this day and age?) choose to 
receive the Digest version can use simple "mechanical" methods 
to scroll quite rapidly past offending messages. 
For example, you can open a digest, scroll happily until 
you encounter the first annoying message, then invoke the 
"Find" dialog. Fill in a standard set of characters that 
normally appear in just one place in a message - like 
"Subject:".  Or just put the cursor on that word in 
the header before you invoke "Find" - most interfaces will 
insert the current word as the default search term, saving 
you a couple more keystrokes.

Every time you click "Find Next" or type [Ctrl]-[F], you 
are at the top of a new message (within the digest), 
looking at its title, immediately to the right of the 
highlighted term.
If you don't like that title, keep hitting [Ctrl]-[F] 
until the situation changes.

If you wish to complain about having to press [Ctrl]-[F]
160 times, then consider getting your messages singly, 
and applying automatic filters. It's not hard to learn 
how your mail-reader does that, and yes, your reader 
DOES have rules/filters capability. If not, then you have 
other problems - avoid driving and avoid handling sharp 
objects.

The above are suggestions, possible approaches, that don't 
involve repression.

If certain people constantly offend your sensibilities, 
then filters are handy for that, too. With no change in 
behavior by current posters, your Techwr-l folder 
could easily have no more than five or six messages per day, 
all of them the kind you do want to see, and none of them 
with my name attached. Filters/e-mail rules are your friend.


> let alone when a good portion of them include
> nothing more than a "witty" remark or something that's even
> labeled OT. Folks, before you post a witty comment, a
> one-line reply, a comment that takes discussions further away from
> technical writing, or the like, realize that you're not adding
> value for the 3,000+ subscriber base and the 10,000+ daily
> list readership who subscribed to discuss technical
> communication.

The key in the above paragraph is "nothing more than".
I've got nothing against a witty remark that comes along 
with some thoughtful exposition or some questions.
But yes, wise-ass comments alone are problematic in a 
list with a large number of subscribers. 

 
> The TECHWR-L list is set up so that when people
> reply to a message, they have to make the conscious
> choice to Reply All if they want the message to go to
> the list. If your message doesn't add value to a technical
> writing-related discussion, think twice before posting:
> 
> * Consider sending the message off-list to the person
>    you're responding to

> * Consider posting the material as a blog or a story
>    reference on the TECHWR-L Web site:

>    http://www.techwr-l.com
> * Consider asking whether the message is appropriate
>    before posting. Contact us at admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com

All good options that are subject to a wide range of 
interpretation - like in the previous section where I 
pointed out _my_ interpretation that the key phrase was 
"nothing more than". Others would have read your 
paragraph with different emphasis and would therefore 
be reading this other stuff differently, too.  

Unlike the people who tired of it in the first ten 
minutes, I've seen new angles and clarifications introduced 
to the various arms of the "Pet Peeves" hydra. So, I 
haven't lost interest. Therefore, I haven't bothered to 
apply any e-mail filtering to the subject keyword nor 
to the names of any participants.

But I'm getting really tired of that XML thread... 
Hey, that was a joke. 
At least half the list will never need to know about the 
XML stuff. Could it be that they are ignoring/skipping/filtering 
messages that have XML in the title? Looks like they must have 
the skillz to filter "Peeve" or "PC bunch".
 
> Above all, please be considerate of others' time. Through
> this list, help other technical communicators do their jobs
> more easily; don't make this list one more obstacle to
> doing their jobs.

Except for the moderators, who might sometimes feel the need 
to read every last message, it is not a time issue for anybody 
who bothers to learn the basics of their mail-reader program.

I agree that it's simple netiquette to not post one-liners 
(well, unless they're really good one-liners but it's always 
safer to not be your own judge of your own wit) and me-toos.
To me, it's only irritating if the poster neglects to edit 
what they're agreeing with. There's no need to abuse that 
many electrons to repeat what we've all seen. It definitely 
IS an imposition to have to wade through tons of auto-quoted 
text just to get to a six-word reply.
If you agree with something just say "I agree with <quick
summary>". It's useful to us to know that some people 
or many people agree with a point (that's related at 
least tenuously to techwriting). We just don't need you 
to leave all ten thousand words of the previous thread 
in your "me too".

Yet, that same ton of quoted text is not offensive if it's 
liberally interspersed with thoughtful (or even witty) replies.
That's called discussion.

The foot of authority can be brought down on the truly 
offensive behavior if the authority chooses to wear the 
stilletos, or it can be brought down on everybody who's 
in the room at the time, if the authority selects the 
jackboots instead of the precision-stomping footwear.

I don't suggest that the list go un-moderated. 
I do suggest that moderators AND the people who /w/h/i/n/e/ 
er... /p/e/s/t/e/r/ ... er... appeal to them might be 
as specific as possible about describing and about crushing 
offending behavior. In other words, tar with a narrow brush.

If it's something you are interested in, 160 messages is 
not too much. 
If it started appropriate and some of its offshoots became 
inappropriate, complain about the _specific_ offshoots 
(again, that narrow brush). Simply moaning that a thread 
has gone on too long for your taste is ... inappropriate.
It reveals that you are either not competent to operate your 
mail reader or that you are too lazy to do so. 
Moaning that one branch of the thread has lost all of 
its apropos points and hasn't had a fresh thought in two 
days... well, that's different.
Moaning that people are failing to rename a thread when it 
takes a significantly new direction... well that's another 
good one that conveys specific information and has a 
reasonably defined target.

Aren't we technical writers supposed to get to the heart of 
matters and convey precise thoughts in easy-to-grasp fashion?
We could do that when complaining. Then the moderators would 
know where to apply the spike heel... and not the lugged, 
all-terrain Vibram stomper.

My take, suitably delayed by moderation.  :-)


Kevin McLauchlan (who has been a member via various accounts since sometime
in the '90s)

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