Theos-Talk Archives (November 2002 Message tt00553)

Bart wrote: <<Suggestion: Use the subject line to put the 
SUBJECT of the message. If you want to write a letter to 
someobody in particular, consider EMAIL. If you think 
it's sufficiently interesting to everybody to put in the
list, then putting "TO: Joe Doe" is a great way of getting 
people NOT to read it. They'll figure, "It's for Joe Doe, 
not for me." So all you do is waste bandwidth.>>

Would seem to me that if a discussion list is public 
enough, (obviously enough, to begin with), then it should 
be apparent enough (to all?) that the subject headings 
(such as "to Joe") on such lists/posts are, or ought to be, 
an indication about the theme of the post, instead, rather 
than an indication of privacy.

Of course, on the other hand, some of us may 
occasionally wish to post private messages publically . . . 
? Really? ^:-) Don't we all get each other's private 
email addresses in all our public postings? And what's 
the point of apologizing for entering a public discussion 
thread started by, say, two participants, when everybody 
knows that if they wanted their discussion to be private 
they could exchange emails privately.

Or did I overlook something . . . ? Of course, on the 
other hand, (or first hand?), manas tends to be "human" 
and "courteous," and tentative, all that, but . . . And not 
to mention newbies like me who might not know if 
they're coming or going on account of speculating so 
much.

Speculatively,
Mauri