Violations of Netiquette on RADSAFE

[js_dukelow@ccmail.pnl.gov (James S Jr Dukelow)]

Twice in the last week or so, RADSAFE subscribers who read RADSAFE in 
Digest format have thoughtlessly "replied" to a message in the Digest, 
with the result that their email software copies or "quotes" the entire 
Digest in the reply sent back to RADSAFE.  The end result is that a 
thousand (or however many RADSAFE subscribers there are) receive another 
copy of a Digest they have already read (or, alternately, if they read 
RADSAFE undigested, they received another copy of 15 or 20 messages that 
they have already read).  This is impolite, offensive, a nuisance, and a 
waste of Internet bandwidth.

I have suggested a couple of times to Melissa Woo that RADSAFE be set up 
so that "replies" are directed to the original poster instead of to the 
whole list.  This would require a bit more work of those who want their 
reply to go to the whole maillist.  Melissa cited some surveying that 
she did of RADSAFE subscribers that suggested that they preferred the 
convenience of being able respond easily to the list and the increased 
dialog on the list (and, coincidentally, the convenience of being able 
to easily mailbomb several thousand people with things they had already 
read).

Absent changes to the RADSAFE list configuration to reduce this problem, 
I implore subscribers to think before they simply "reply" to RADSAFE 
messages and to include ONLY THE RELEVANT CONTEXT of the message that 
they are responding to.

Best regards.

Jim Dukelow
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Richland, WA

js_dukelow@pnl.gov