medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Dear medieval-religion colleagues,

Having returned to my mail after a short absence, I wish in this note to
thank Graham Jones for his message concerning list conventions. I'm afraid
that several of the changes that Graham has noted -- and disapproves of --
are ones I have put in place myself, so I would like to address the issues,
in an attempt to make things more comprehensible.

List owners have to deal with a LOT of mail that list members never see, and
the vast majority of that correspondence is purely routine; moreover, much
of THAT purely routine correspondence could be eliminated if people were
aware of the most basic guidelines concerning the list.

One of them has to do with the raison d'etre of the list: to provide a forum
for scholarly discussions regarding medieval religion and culture.
Experience has shown that sometimes people forget that this is what the list
is for; consequently, a one-line banner now appears at the top of every
message. It is my hope that one line is not too much of a bother, that it
does not unduly waste space in anyone's mailbox quota, and that it may serve
as a visual 'icon' to members, reminding them that what they are reading is
a list message, and perhaps to aid them in what they write to the list.

But experience running medieval-religion and other lists teaches that this
is not enough to erase the possibility of misuse (although, of course, it
can never be erased completely). In particular, it can happen -- and has
happened on several occasions -- that someone sees who sent a message to
them, wishes to write to that person, and does so by composing a message and
using the 'reply' command. In so doing, that person sends a personal message
-- and possibly a confidential, embarrassing one -- to many hundreds of
people. Another way to deal with this, then, is for me to have arranged for
the three-character identifier 'm-r' at the beginning of subject lines of
messages emanating (how very pseudo-Dionysian!) from the list. This way,
anyone looking at the most basic information in their inbox -- name of
sender, and subject line -- knows that a particular message is in fact a
medieval-religion message, even before opening the message or intending to
'reply' to the person who sent it. Indeed, on busy days, the 'm-r' siglum
may help a member to decide to return to, to store, or even to delete list
messages without having to go through the bother of opening them at once; in
this way, it is hoped that the presence of the siglum would be a service to
members, not a hindrance.

Finally, as most queries that arise -- even to the most experienced list
members -- are very simple ones such as wondering how to leave the list, or
to learn what other commands there are, I have arranged for there to be a
brief 'tag' at the end of each message. In this way, almost any possible
routine query that any member could have is answered simply by looking at
the end of any one of our list messages. This is intended to make life
simpler and more convenient for our members, as well as for the list's
owners.

In order for this to be convenient, I must echo a point raised by Graham,
and this concerns editing what is sent to the list. If any text of a
preceding message is included in your reply, please ensure that it is
essential to what you have to say. It is rare that copying the whole of
someone's message is necessary to what you have to add; and it is absolutely
unnecessary to include the list banners that begin and end each message to
the list! PLEASE edit very carefully; as a rule, I suggest the following:
'If in doubt, cut it out!'

I would also like to address Graham's request to us that we begin messages
with what we are adding to a discussion rather than beginning it with what
has given rise to the reply. To this I would say: each to his or her taste.
It is true that your e-mail application has only a badly designed and very
small window, Graham (as a fellow Leicesteroid, so has mine); other list
members using any number of e-mail applications may not. Please do not
forget that members of this list use almost every software and operating
system platform imaginable: some are very old (such as elm or pine), some
are days old; many use Windows (cursed be its name), others prefer Macintosh
(victim of Microsoft treachery ;-O ), or UNIX, or LINUX; and some
applications are text-based, while others are Web-based. And when it comes
to the presentation of the content of messages, some members prefer to see
the 'new bits' first; others prefer to see the discourse in its logical,
chronological order. Accordingly, there is only one point I would like all
list members to keep in mind: always remember that you should send messages
in the most simple method possible (according to what your software allows,
of course). This is why you should avoid sending attachments at all costs;
why you should ensure that your text is not formatted, and why you should
avoid sending messages using unusual characters or symbols.

Please write to me if any of this is unclear (I fear that it probably is, as
it is written in some haste), or if you wish to discuss the points I have
raised.

And thanks to Graham for raising the issues underlying this reply of mine.

All good wishes,
George

George Ferzoco
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