UNSUBSCRIBE YOURSELF, was [CLUE-Tech] Please Unsubscribe

[Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier]

On Tue, 2003-06-10 at 09:44, Kirk Rafferty wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 10, 2003 at 09:40:15AM -0600, Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier wrote:
> > What, because it's a Linux list we have to bend over backwards for
> > people who are too damn lazy to follow instructions? It's one thing if
> > he'd tried to unsubscribe and there was an error -- but just being too
> > damn lazy? 
> 
> Unsubscribing somebody is hardly bending over backwords.  Login to
> Mailman, select "Membership Management" and unsubscribe.
> 
> By the way, is "Administrivia Filter" turned on for the list?  It's in
> General Options, and probably would have caught this post.

I don't know, I'm not an admin for the list. Good idea, though. 

> > I've got news for you, very few mailing lists are tolerant of this kind
> > of crap. This is netiquette 101 -- if you opt-in to a mailing list, you
> > take the responsibility to opt back out. If you can't be bothered, maybe
> > you don't belong online. 
> 
> I agree.  Lazy people bug me.
> 
> But do the means really justify the end?  We now have a severly off-topic
> thread (of which I am a gulty party), tempers are high, and nobody really
> knows why Chris can't or won't unsubscribe himself.

Well, look at it the other way for a second. If we make it a policy to
just unsubscribe people rather than having them use the tools we
provide, what's the point of having those tools? And, hey, if we're
willing to unsubscribe Chris, then we should be willing to unsubscribe
everybody who can't be bothered. Hell, why don't we just make a point of
cleaning up after anyone who is too lazy to do so, because we can't
possibly be rude or tell someone that they have to take responsibility
for themselves! 

To heck with it Chris, don't bother -- and while you're at it, park your
SUV in the handicapped space (make it two!) so you're that much closer
to the door next time you go shopping. Throw your cigarette butts where
ever the hell you feel like it, toss the soda cans out the window, let
your dog crap on the sidewalk -- we won't say a word, because that would
be rude!

> I have a customer who is blind.  He uses some sort of brail interface
> to his computer.  When he first contacted us, I couldn't understand why
> he was so resistant to using our web interface to signup.  His email
> was poorly formatted too, and I could easily have written him off.
> Turns out his brail terminal has a hard time with HTML, and tends to
> format email strangely.  Yet he's hardly someone that doesn't "belong
> online."  We tend to make assumptions that may not always be correct.
> Again, perception is not necessarily truth.

Like I said, I could understand sending a mail to the list if he had
issues unsubscribing -- but it seems to me that he just can't be
bothered. I went and looked at his site before I "said" anything. It's
full of graphics and he has "Alaska photos" and "Denver blizzard" under
"Hobbies" so I kind of doubt that he's blind. 

> > If this is a CIO, they'd go with Windows because Linux would seem too
> > hard anyway...if they can't handle a simple Webpage to unsubscribe from
> > a mailing list, they're not a prime candidate for Linux either. 
> 
> This sounds elitist to me, and pretty much feeds the FUD that Linux is for
> techno-snobs.  If we wrote off every manager who fit the "Windows" profile,
> Linux would still be a backwater OS running muds in our basement.

No -- I'm not trying to be elitist, I'm just saying that I doubt that
someone who's too lazy to bother unsubscribing to a mail list is going
to buy into a system that would seem more complicated than Windows. 

Zonker
-- 
Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier
jzb at dissociatedpress.net
Aim: zonkerjoe
http://www.dissociatedpress.net