🚀 go-pugleaf

Initial message posted: 2:00 pm EDT on 8/2/93
24-hour total response: 26

Yes, let's split:     17  (16 Mac)

No, let's not:        07  (04 Mac)

Mixed feelings:       03

Let's drop the topic: 03

Other suggestions:

Begin header (subject line) with (DOS) (WIN) (MAC): 05

Practice restraint: 01
        Reply to individuals rather than the group.
        Send customer-service questions directly to Niles.

Change your listserver mail setting to a one-a-day digest: 01
        Send this message: set endnote mail digest
        To the listserver address:listserv@UCSBVM

Comment from WH:

Thanks to everyone for writing. Here's my EndNote on the topic.

"Listserver" groups lack the conventions that often govern discussion
(moderator, agenda, common objective) and they have no interface protocols
to guide user responses (a menu for selecting DOS/WIN/MAC mail). The end
result is not dialogue, but a weird hybrid of party line and suggestion
box.

The other inherent problem is random usage. Users come and go at odd times;
they miss or repeat old points; they shift topics to serve their own needs.
It's hard to see how such "mail" will ever amount to true correspondence or
conversation.

Would splitting off into a MAC group solve those problems? Only a little.
They also have their schisms (Sys 6/7; Desktop/PowerBook), and yes, they'd
miss out on learning from non-Mac users, who can make good general points
about EndNote, if they remember to think about the rest of us.

Would writing DOS/MAC in the header help? Sure, but that takes a voluntary
effort and the interface doesn't provide a reminder, so the habit would
probably die out soon.

Practice restraint? Ideal, but now we're talking manners, common sense,
even ethics; all in scarce supply these days. The "rules" ought to be
simple and self-evident: keep the focus on EndNote, not your machine.
Address the group with general issues, like how you use the product or what
sort of research it supports. Refer basic or specific problems to (A) the
manual (B) customer service or (C) Avi Rappoport. Those are the privileges
of registered owners, and if you aren't bona fide, then please exit NOW.

One final plaint: why do so many responses begin with "On 02 August you
said" and then dupe the old letter? I don't have THAT short a memory, and
it's another e-mail tic that wastes time and space.

By the way, it's a LOT easier to set up menus,leave general instructions,
browse and search mail, if the discussion group is installed on a Gopher or
USENET server. Maybe--and here's my LAST radical suggestion for the
week--we should consider moving into modern quarters?
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William Howarth                 |            Tel: 609-258-5162
Dept. of English                |
22 McCosh Hall                  |            Fax: 609-258-1607
Princeton University            |
Princeton, NJ  08544            |   howarth@phoenix.princeton.edu
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