[net.general] proper use of net.general and the Mac Whopper debate

mark (11/04/82)

Look, people, net.general was not put here for debates like whether
the Big Mac or the Whopper is better.  What is unfortunate is that
by the time you read this, you have already gone past a pile of
other nonsense and possibly even fed the flames.  Too bad I can't
post this to be read first.

net.general is there for (1) queries, and (2) announcements, that
need to be read by everyone on the whole net.  Everyone on the whole
net is supposed to subscribe to it.  Anything the users do that makes
people unsubscribe is bad.  This includes the burger debate.

In this particular case, the correct thing to do would have been for
rochester!avie to have said in the note "please send me mail and I'll
tabulate the results".  However, Rochester is a new site and probably
didn't know the network etiquette.  And he did post an article shortly
thereafter asking for replies to be mailed.  So it's not really his
fault (but I bet he'll know better next time).

However, so far I have read 6 followups in net.general and countless
ones in net.followup.  These people should all have known better.

Followups to net.general are not supposed to be possible - the followup
command automatically changes this to net.followup to keep net.general
free of clutter.  Those of you who only read net.general and have gotten
annoyed should be thankful that most of them went to net.followup.
However, there appear to be several sites running old versions of news
that neither use net.followup nor put "Re:" in the title; this makes it
impossible for people to avoid such debates.  These sites appear to
include ixlpc, ihuxb, ihnss, wivax, watmath, and cca.  I propose that
we discuss what, if anything, to do about this in net.news.

By the way, this whole burger discussion belonged in net.misc in the
first place.

	Mark Horton