[sf-lug] bad netiquette [Was]license count != software popularity (Re: [Balug-Talk] Open Source less popular than Free Software)

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Steve M Bibayoff (bibayoff at gmail.com):

> Out of curiosity, did anyone else find this bad netiquette (requesting
> others to correct bad behavior from x-posting)?

FWIW, I think that's more than a little harsh, calling it bad netiquette.  
Asheesh was trying to grapple with a problem that has no good solutions, 
and do it in a considerate fashion to minimise the likelihood of
problems for listadmins and users.  As a listadmin (elsewhere), I 
appreciate his intention, at the very minimum.

Specifically, for reasons of his own, he wanted to reach both the SF-LUG
and main BALUG lists with the same message text.  There are really only
two ways to do that (crossposting and multiposting):  Each has
disadvantages, and informed people of goodwill differ over whether (and
when) either is OK, and over which is preferable.

Among the disadvantages of crossposting is that many people who might
then be tempted to reply will not, unlike Asheesh himself, be subscribed
to both lists, leading to delivery failures and and annoyed listadmins
when they Reply-All.  So, Asheesh _tried_ to ward off that outcome with
his prefatory caution.

Some people would go so far as to call crossposting (between mailing
lists) bad netiquette generally:  I myself, FWIW, merely politely ask
people to carefully consider before using the practice.