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Subject:Re: Welcome and how to leave From:Len Olszewski <saslpo -at- UNX -dot- SAS -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 27 Apr 1993 09:22:20 -0500
> Peter Montgomery wrote:
> >As far as I'm concerned, requests to unsubscribe that come to
> >the list itself, instead of going to the listserver, should at best fall
> >on deaf ears, or, at least, receive a redirective that encourages more
> >responsible community attitudes.
> Amen! Anything to reduce all these *garbage* requests!
> Please...
> Thanks,
> Michael McClatchey
Wow, talk about hitting a raw nerve! You can tell this is a list for
technical writers, since there is an evident abundance of animosity
seething under the surface directed at people who don't RTFM.
Naturally, people should *always* read ALL of the directions, and
remember them too. If they can't remember them, they should put them
where they can get to them, and retrieve the necessary information when
the situation requires it.
As we discover from the the lessons of this list, however, people
commonly do nothing of the sort, and they *get away with it*, annoying
the hell out of the technical writing community in the process.
As an instructive example, this situation makes a strong argument for
persistent documentation with good accessibility. Unfortunately, list
services force people to take responsibility for their own information
storage and retrieval. Human nature being what it is, a fair percentage
of them screw it up.
Here's the silver lining; these are the very traits that keep all of us
technical writers working. If people were able to this for themselves,
a lot of us would be out of a job.
So keep those garbage requests coming. Every time I see one, I hear a
cash register ring inside of my head. And my boy needs a new pair of
shoes for the summer...
|Len Olszewski, Technical Writer |"The things you see when don't have |
|saslpo -at- unx -dot- sas -dot- com|Cary, NC, USA| your gun." - My buddy, Jim McD. |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Opinions this ludicrous are mine. Reasonable opinions will cost you.|
