Python Developers Handbook

[Andrew Dalke]

wooks wrote:
> If I had posted or invited the group to look at my full list of items
> rather than just the python book link then I could see where you are
> coming from.

Take a look at http://www.templetons.com/brad/spamterm.html
for some of the first spams and reactions thereof.

There's a 30+ year history of posts which one person thinks
is relevant or important and others find off-topic, crass,
and rude.  A rough sort of social norms - called netiquette -
have come from that experience.

> If my intention was to "spam" this NG then the complaints as they were
> phrased would  only have served to make me more determined.

The intention is to prevent it from happening in the future.

If your intention is indeed to spam the group then there
are mechanisms to stop you, including such lovely terms as
killfiles and cancelbots.  Too much of it and you might find
your account suspended.  Or have you not wondered why few
spams make it here?

If your intention is to continue posting then it's a
warning of sorts that as in every community there are social
forms to follow, and often good reasons for those forms.

Terry backed up his response explaining not only the
convention for what you were doing, but also mentioned
(briefly) why he responded in the way he did.


I personally found your original posting blunt.  I thought
it was a virus or spam.  You see, I don't do eBay and
whenever I see that term in my mail in a URL it's either
a spam or a phishing attack.  So I ignored it.  If you
really wanted to sell it then following Terry's advice
and holding to social forms would have been better for
your auction.  There's little incentive for anyone to
follow that link without knowing more about it.

> Maybe we will all learn something from each other.

Hopefully you, but not likely the others involved.  As
I said, this sort of thing has a long history and for
anyone who's been doing this for years (like me) there's
little new to learn on the topic.  

To give an idea of the history, there's even an RFC
on netiquette from 10 years ago:
  http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1855.html

The directly relevant part is

    - Advertising is welcomed on some lists and Newsgroups, and abhorred
      on others!  This is another example of knowing your audience
      before you post.  Unsolicited advertising which is completely
      off-topic will most certainly guarantee that you get a lot of
      hate mail.

Most assuredly, what Terry sent you is *not* hate mail.


				Andrew
				dalke at dalkescientific.com