Research Responses - Steven J. Coker
Subject: Research Responses
From: Steven J. Coker
Date: August 15, 1999

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION: I posted an offer to do limited research ... I was
sending replys to the person making a request, not to the list.  I did not want
to clutter other folks mail boxes with info that was of no use to them.  It
seems that some want the answers to the requests sent to the list, others may
not.  Please give me a ruling on this.


RESPONSE: You can't tell when someone might read a message in the Forum and find
something useful.  Perhaps something they didn't even think of as a potential
area of research.  Also, if you post in the Forum, then the information will be
available for future researchers to find by searching the archives.  

Don't let it bother you if a few participants don't like your posting messages
that they find of no use.  The service isn't intended to meet the needs of every
individual in every message.  There will often be message threads on topics
which are not of interest to some participants.  If they don't want such
messages, they can either delete them or unsubscribe from the service.

So, my opinion is that you should use good judgement when deciding which
messages should be sent directly and which to send to the Forum.  

* Messages in the Forum should comply with the Forum Policy Statements.

* Newer dates generally have fewer researchers needing the information.  

* Older dates generally have more researchers who want the information.  

* Public domain materials can be copied and quoted freely.  

* Be careful and selective when dealing with copyrighted materials.  

* "Less is best" with Pizza and Quoting.

* When in doubt, leave it out.

 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

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