Giving credit where credit is due?

["Geoff Hart" <Geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca>]

Meg Halter plans <<...to turn this summary of suggestions 
offered by members of Techwr-l into an article in the 
newsletter. In the article, should I name all the contributors? It 
seems the right thing to do, but I'm not too clear on privacy 
issues in print versus on this list server.>>

I use a fairly simple triage system for deciding how to 
acknowledge people in newsletter articles that I write:
- If I quote someone directly, I confirm the quote (in context) 
with the person, and include their name.
- If someone provides key information that either fills in a gap 
with info. I hadn't thought of myself, or corrects one of my 
misperceptions, I acknowledge the person by name. Ditto if 
the person provides info. on several points.
- If the person merely reinforces something I was already 
going to say, I acknowledge them with a generic "thanks" or 
"this is based on a discussion on techwr-l".

That doesn't cover every possible situation, but I haven't yet 
come across a situation that didn't fit logically into one of the 
three categories.


--Geoff Hart @8^{)}     Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

"Perhaps there is something deep and profound behind all those sevens, something just calling out for us to discover it. But I 
suspect that it is only a pernicious, Pythagorean coincidence." George Miller, "The Magical Number Seven" (1956)