J&E wrote:
>
> My question of Etiquette is: Is it wrong to to use a private post
> answer, to a list [public] thread?
That's kind of a tricky question. IMO, private emails should be, well,
private. Forwarding them to the list is likely to cause ill will (after
all, the sender probably had a reason not to cc: the list, and IMO you
should respect his wishes).
OTOH a short summary of the useful technical content (after any
misunderstandings are resolved, etc.) is a worthwhile thing to post. My
preference would be a summary of all answers, followed by thanks to all
concerned, without making it obvious which answers came from which
people. Some people (not me obviously <g>) don't like having their
answers aired in public, I guess for fear of ridicule if they are
thought wrong.
> I see people putting foot notes at the bottom of there response as to
> not to repeat their answer. Does that mean that one is not to pass the
> information along?
Can't really comment on why someone would do that, but again the polite
thing to do is respect their wishes. However, I would take it as a
prohibition against repeating it literally (ie word for word), as
opposed to repeating the information.
Think of it like a love letter to your girlfriend : You probably don't
care if anyone knows you are in love with her, but you would really
rather that no one sees the "sweet nothings" you write.
Of course, all this is a bit like saying "The polite thing is to make
sure you aren't next to a LBC before changing lanes in your SUV". It's
a nice ideal, but it gets violated every day <g>
Randall
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