With apologies to PhysLrnR's to whom I recently sent a similar post
that was addressed to the discussion list POD (Professional and
Organizational Development).
Rick Tarara (2005), in his Phys-L post of 25 Jul 2005 provocatively
titled "Extraneous, arrogant, stupid, grossly-misinformed computer OS
comments..." wrote (in its entirety):
". . . . this list could do without!"
It sounds serious, but what does it mean? What post or posts moved
Rick to such an outburst? Unfortunately, it is probably obscure to
those who are not computer-OS aficionados or have not scanned recent
Phys-L posts relevant to computers.
Suggestion #3 of my "Thirteen Posting Suggestions" Hake (2004) is:
3. Indicate the SPECIFIC post (date, discussion list, title, and name
of poster) to which you are responding. With such information the
archives can immediately yield that post - there's no need to copy
the entire replied-to-post into one's reply!
A scan of the Phys-L digests or archives shows that "Thirteen Posting
Suggestions" was virtually ignored. Evidently most Phys-L'ers are
free spirited types for whom:
"Rules and models destroy genius and art"
William Hazlitt (1778-1830), "On Taste"
Nevertheless, the APPENDIX contains a suggestion-list update
"Fourteen Posting Suggestions." The added 14th suggestion is an
attempt to reduce the number of unnecessary Automated Out Of Office
Replies (AOOOR's) transmitted to posters. Do posters really need to
know that, e.g., "Professor I.M. Fishin is on an invited world
lecture tour and will return on 6 September 2005"?
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
APPENDIX: FOURTEEN POSTING SUGGESTIONS [R.R. Hake, 25 July 2005;
derived primarily from Adam Engst (1999) & Dan MacIsaac (2002);
supersedes Hake (2004)]
1. Search the ARCHIVES of the list before asking a question or
opening a new topic (it may already have been discussed ad nauseam).
2. Use SUBJECT HEADINGS that accurately convey the topic of the post
(especially important for following threads in archive searches). If
you are replying to a post whose subject heading follows an
established thread such as "trim the message" and you think the
subject of your post would be better stated as "Fourteen Posting
Suggestions," then give the subject in the thread preserving form
"Fourteen Posting Suggestions (was trim the message)."
3. Indicate the SPECIFIC post (date, discussion list, title, and name
of poster) to which you are responding. With such information the
archives can immediately yield that post - THERE'S NO NEED TO COPY
THE ENTIRE REPLIED-TO-POST INTO ONE'S REPLY!
4. For those blest with LISTSERV archives (such as Phys-L), give
instructions for accessing SETS of posts by Subject and/or Author
and/or Time in the archives. For example, "Phys-L posts with
'Einstein' in the subject line since January 2004" can be accessed at
the archive search engine
<http://lists.nau.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=phys-l> by typing (without the
quotes) "Einstein" (into the "Subject" slot, and "2004" into the
"Since" slot to obtain 67 hits as 25 Jul 2005 16:10:00-0700.
5. If you *must* reply to a post by hitting the "reply" button (bane
of discussion lists), and thus often littering the list with
superfluous already posted once ">", twice ">>", thrice ">>>", etc.,
etc. material, at least prune the original message normally contained
in your reply down to the few lines that are relevant to your reply.
6. Avoid sending ATTACHMENTS to lists - they will often appear as
pages of code and may introduce VIRUSES :-( . Instead, place the
attachment on a web page and give subscribers the URL.
7. Avoid sending messages in HTML or "enriched text." Some
subscribers may that it is almost impossible to read. Check your
mail-system's settings to be sure you are NOT sending mail to
discussion lists only in HTML or in a double posting first in ASCII
and the in HTML.
8. Give complete and accurate sets of (preferably hot-linked)
REFERENCES. For example: "see 'Doctoral Preparation of Scientifically
Based Education Researchers' [Eisenhart & DeHaan (2005)]" is more
concise and helpful than "see the article on doctoral preparation in
the recent Educational Researcher."
9. Give URL's as <http://......>. For most (but not all) server/mail
systems: the "http://"; serves to hot-link URL's, and the angle
brackets <. . .> serve to preserve hot-linking across line breaks.
Note that unlike <http://www.aera.net/publications/?id=711>, its
abbreviation <www.aera.net/publications/?id=711> is NOT hot-linked.
CLICK ON ALL URL'S IN YOUR MESSAGE TO BE SURE THEY WORK.
10. Use a BRIEF signature that includes your affiliation, mailing
address, and (if you have one) your homepage.
11. Carefully PROOFREAD your posts prior to posting - check English,
spelling (especially NAMES), and grammar; remove all ambiguous and
offensive material.
12. EXAMINE the address in the "To" slot. Do you really want to
transmit your intimate love letter to the entire list of subscribers?
13. Pause a few minutes to review your post and THINK before you hit
the SEND button. Is your post:
(a) of probable interest to at least a few subscribers to the list?
(b) insulting or disrespectful to any individual or group?
(c) in accord with the purpose of the list [according to its homepage
<http://PhysicsEd.BuffaloState.edu/PHYS-L/index.html> "PHYS-L is a
list dedicated to physics and the teaching of physics with about 700
members from over 35 countries, the majority of whom are physics
educators."
14. Avoid sending Automated Out Of Office Replies (AOOOR's) to
discussion posters when you're away from your office. For LISTSERV
lists such as Phys-L, the following steps will prevent transmission
of AOOOR's during protracted absence from the office:
(b) Click on "Join or leave the list (or change settings)"
(c) Subscribe using the "NOMAIL" option under "Miscellaneous." The
NOMAIL option allows one to post and access posts on the archives at
any time while receiving NO MAIL from the list - it's a good way to
monitor discussion lists without undue sacrifice of time, hard-drive
space, and sanity.
Then, after your return:
(1) reinstate your regular subscription via "a" and "b" above,
(2) go to the archives and scan any posts that arrived during your
absence or since your last visit, and examine only those which appear
worthwhile.
For further information on dealing with discussion lists see "Re:
Lively Academic Listservs" [Hake (2003)]. For example, the trick to
monitoring posts on LISTSERV archives is to:
a. click on the months of interest,
b. arrange the posts chronologically by clicking the icon second from
the left with the sheets numbered #1,2),
c. scan the titles and authors of posts that have arrived since your
last visit, and examine only those that appear worthwhile.
"It is not enough to observe, experiment, theorize, calculate and
communicate; we must also argue, criticize, debate, expound,
summarize, and otherwise transform the information that we have
obtained individually into reliable, well established, public
knowledge."
John Ziman. 1969. "Information, Communication, Knowledge," Nature 224
(5217): 324.
REFERENCES
Eisenhart M. & R.L. DeHaan. 2005. "Doctoral Preparation of
Scientifically Based Education Researchers," Educational Researcher
34(4): 3-13; online at <http://www.aera.net/publications/?id=711>.
Engst, A.C. 1999. "Mailing List Manners 101 & 102", online at
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbser=1141>. In my opinion,
Engst's Manners Courses 101 & 102 should be prerequisites for all
list subscriptions.
Hake, R.R. 2003. "Re: Lively Academic Listservs," online at
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0312&L=pod&P=R3771>. Post of
5 Dec 2003 16:02:18-0800 to POD, PhysLrnR, Physhare. Later sent to
AERA-D, EvalTalk, and ASSESS, and Math-Learn. The APPENDIX contains a
list of academic listserves, now superseded by the list in Hake
(2005).
Hake, R.R. 2005. "The Insularity of Educational Research," online at
<http://lists.asu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0505&L=AERA-L&P=R2786&I=-3&X=41
930D401FD8213172&Y=rrhake%40earthlink.net>. Post of 21 May 2005
12:11:27-0700 to AERA-L and PhysLrnR. Contains a list of
discussion-list archive URL's.