[R] do not reply for a new topic!!!

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> "Adaikalavan" == Adaikalavan Ramasamy <ramasamy at cancer.org.uk>
>>>>>     on Fri, 20 Aug 2004 15:33:57 +0100 writes:

    Adaikalavan> How about those e-mail which specify the
    Adaikalavan> problem in the subject line only or does not
    Adaikalavan> use a subject line at all.

    Adaikalavan> Is it practicable and desirable to simply
    Adaikalavan> bounce back an e-mail to the sender with a
    Adaikalavan> message to read the posting guide if either the
    Adaikalavan> subject line is empty or body is empty. Or this
    Adaikalavan> simply rude ?

This has crossed my mind more than once,
however (independent of etiquette/rudeness), 
we do stick to our policy as to not bounce back anything in
almost all cases :

If you start bouncing to another mail machine which likes to do
so as well, you quickly get into high-speed Ping-Pong ... ;-)

Martin

    Adaikalavan> On Fri, 2004-08-20 at 14:52, Martin Maechler wrote:
    >> Hi Kevin,
    >> {and R-help readers:  Kevin's (privatae) question is a quite
    >> relevant one to this sidetrack topic of "mailing list netiquette"}
    >> 
    >> >>>>> "Kevin" == Kevin Wang <Kevin.Wang at maths.anu.edu.au>
    >> >>>>>     on Fri, 20 Aug 2004 22:37:39 +1000 (EST) writes:
    >> 
    Kevin> Just out of interest, what about those posts with (no
    Kevin> subject) as the subject?  Sometimes I would change
    Kevin> the subject so it fits the body...is it recommended?
    >> 
    >> yes, I'd recommend it --- IFF --- your e-mail system is good
    >> enough to set / augment the (usually invisible) headers
    >> "References:" and "In-Reply-To:".
    >> 
    >> AFAIK, by official standards, these are used for threading
    >> (if available) rather than the subjects.
    >> 
    >> Martin
    >> 
    Kevin> On Fri, 20 Aug 2004, Martin Maechler wrote:
    >> 
    >> >> Dear S,
    >> >> 
    >> >> when posting something to R-help or bioconductor,
    >> >> please do *NOT* reply to an existing message and add a new
    >> >> subject!!!  {it breaks threads for most e-mail system that use
    >> >> threads, including the threaded archives, see, e.g.
    >> >> https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/bioconductor/2004-August/thread.html