Hi,
Thanks for your message about Ruby on Rails. I think you'll find that you're likely to get a quicker and more accurate response to your message on the Ruby on Rails specific mailing list.
For subscription and posting information, please visit the Rails mailing list page at:
http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
Sincerely,
Steve
Are these generated automatically to any post that mentions Ruby on Rails?
If they are, would it not serve the purpose better to send a private message to the original poster to recruit them to the RoR mailing list? I get really tired of opening an email to the list to see this, over and over again, especially when some of the threads, despite mentioning RoR in it somewhere, really are more general than that and are probably better served in a the generalized forum of this list.
Kirk Haines
On Wed, 12 Jul 2006, Stephen Waits wrote:
Thanks for your message about Ruby on Rails. I think you'll find that you're likely to get a quicker and more accurate response to your message on the Ruby on Rails specific mailing list.
For subscription and posting information, please visit the Rails mailing list page at:
khaines@enigo.com wrote:
Are these generated automatically to any post that mentions Ruby on Rails?
Absolutely not.
If they are, would it not serve the purpose better to send a private message to the original poster to recruit them to the RoR mailing list?
Absolutely not. There are an awful lot of lurkers who might benefit from public posting.
I get really tired of opening an email to the list to see this, over and over again, especially when some of the threads, despite mentioning RoR in it somewhere, really are more general than that and are probably better served in a the generalized forum of this list.
I send the message out, rather infrequently actually, specifically to threads that are exclusively questions about RoR.
If a thread has a more general topic, I don't send out the suggestion.
I'm sorry you get tired of reading it. I get really tired of RoR questions. And, historically, before a few of us started doing this, the RoR infestation on this list was really bad. Today it's quite low.
If my infrequent messages to the list do continue to bother you, please consider adding me to your killfile.
--Steve
If they are, would it not serve the purpose better to send a private message to the original poster to recruit them to the RoR mailing list?
Absolutely not. There are an awful lot of lurkers who might benefit from public posting.
That seems suspect to me. Let me follow up on this at the end of the email, though.
I send the message out, rather infrequently actually, specifically to threads that are exclusively questions about RoR.
Maybe they aren't all sent by you, but some of the folks who are told to get packing and get over to the Rail list with their question are definitely asking something that really has a more general potential for discussion. It's really felt to me for a while that the effort to get people to use the most appropriate forum for their questions has resulted in some overcompensation.
I'm sorry you get tired of reading it. I get really tired of RoR questions. And, historically, before a few of us started doing this, the RoR infestation on this list was really bad. Today it's quite low.
I've been reading the list for quite a few years. I know. However, I question how much of the low incidence of truly inappropriate posts is because of "go away" posts, and how much of it is attributable to better documentation of where the appropriate resources are?
If my infrequent messages to the list do continue to bother you, please consider adding me to your killfile.
That's not an alternative. I don't want to filter all of your posts.
If the blanket broadcasts are useful to new lurkers who don't know better, though, might that purpose be better served by a once a month broadcast email, with some distinctive, clear subject line that makes it easy for those who have been around for a while, and who already know about the RoR mailing list, to reliably filter the message out without risking filtering interesting posts.
Combine that with private emails to those folks who miss the broadcast and all of the other information about where the appropriate forums are, and I think the same effect could be achieved, with no more individual effort than there is now, and I don't have to miss out on all Stephen Waits posts just to avoid the take-your-question-next-door posts.
To me, it's a win-win scenario there. 
Kirk Haines
On Wed, 12 Jul 2006, Stephen Waits wrote:
khaines@enigo.com wrote:
To me, it's a win-win scenario there.
I agree. If there were such a regular monthly posting, I'd gladly take my friendly reminders private.
Perhaps JEG can chime in on the possibility of adding such functionality to the gateway system? Not sure if it's the right place, but seems like the code is all there anyway.
If not, I'm sure we can find somewhere to set such a thing up.
--Steve