ATGVG@ASUACAD.BITNET (Gene Glass) (02/09/90)
I'd like to make one or two suggestions for how to carry on a discussion
through the medium of a LISTSERV, and I do so with every hope that the
tips will not have a chilling effect on frequent and lively
contributions to the list.
Perhaps the most obvious suggestion is that we should save up our
observations and comments until we have enough of them to make for a
couple of dozen or more lines of reading. Very brief (two or three line)
comments strike most readers as not being worth the trouble to open up
the mail item and later discard it. (Of course, if a great truth comes
to you in a flash and can be stated in two lines, please don't keep it
from us :-)
If you have a message for an individual or you want to respond to
someone's contribution but you judge that your response will not interst
many others, then by all means send your message to that person as a
personal letter, not as a contribution to the list. The difference
between MAIL EDPOLYAN and MAIL JOE at STATE is very considerable in
terms of the quality of our electronic life.
For keeping a discussion on track and relevant, there is no
substitute for CONTEXT. When you respond to a contribution, try to
summarize the point that sparked your own comment. Or lead up to your
point with a little introduction that places your remarks in the context
of the over-all discussion. There is even a handy editing tool for
accomplishing this. If you are running MAIL on an IBM mainframe system
(as many do), try this when responding to a specific communique: while
reading the letter to which you wish to respond, get to the Command Line
(usually by executing PF12); once there, type in the command REPLY TEXT.
This will cause the letter you are reading to be framed by the symbol >
(i.e., the greater than symbol) in the left margin of the letter you are
reading. Also, it gives you an edit screen for composing your own reply,
and since the item in question came from EDPOLYAN, your reply will be
sent back to EDPOLYAN (and distributed to all subscribers). You can edit
the portion of the letter to which you are replying by deleting unwanted
lines of text with PF9 and adding blank lines for your messages with
PF2. When finished with your reply, you can send it with PF5, and the
quoted text and your response will be sent to EDPOLYAN for distribution.
There are over 100 individuals around the country on this List and
many of them subscribe to several Lists. We want to do what we can to
make the reading these people do here worthwhile and a good use of their
time.
Thanks for the contributions of many of you to the List, and we hope to
hear from more of you soon.
_______________________________________________________________________
GENE V GLASS ATGVG AT ASUACAD
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION 602-965-2692
ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITYWOLFLE@VTVM2.BITNET (Lee Wolfle) (02/13/90)
While I agree with the priciples of Gene Glass's comments with
regard to tips for discussion on the EDPOLYAN listserv, please
note that commands such as REPLY TEXT, not to mention VAX systems,
may not be applicable to all nodes. Control programs and local
options vary from system to system. As, for example, REPLY TEXT
at my node is an unrecognized command.
Lee Wolfle