Ernest Berkhout made some very good points
which I want to generalise.
It's quite often happened to me that people
will start a thread on Statalist, usually by asking a
question, and then respond to a public reply with
a private message, with the implication
"You answered that, so perhaps you will
also answer this." Such a message is often, of course,
sensible and appropriate if the follow-up message is
personal or private in some way. (Just saying "Thanks!"
or swapping wisecracks are two simple examples.)
More important, it's evident that this also
happens to other people. In what follows, I'll
set out my suggestions as just my view, although I imagine
from Ernest's posting and from other evidence
that there may be some measure of agreement
on this among those who answer questions on Statalist.
After all, similar attitudes seem pervasive
on technical lists on the net.
In general, if the message continues the thread in
a technical way, there is no obvious reason to make it private,
and many reasons to keep it public. My first two
points are modelled on Ernest's.
1. Many more people will be able to give you an answer.
You don't impose on an individual who may already
have given you the whole of their thoughts on
your problem, their two cents' worth/tuppenceworth etc.
2. Many more people are interested in the discussion,
so they profit from your question and from the
answers as well.
3. If your question provokes a secondary question --
please be precise or supply further detail -- then
supplying that in private to one person leaves
others who might be interested in the dark.
4. If your answer closes the thread -- in fact such-and-
such was the solution -- then, similarly, supplying that
in private to one person leaves
others who might be interested in the dark.
5. Many people make a sharp distinction between list
activity, which they think is a good thing for all
sorts of obvious reasons, and unpaid private
consultancy. (Or _paid_ private consultancy,
for that matter.) Consider what you are expecting
of someone, especially if you don't know them
personally.
There's much more by other hands at
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
which is relevant here.
Nick
[email protected]
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