Dear Jay,

At 10:27 AM 6/3/2010, Jay lefstein wrote:
>hey guys< i am guilty of doing this sometimes as well. but honestly I
>try not to hit reply all.

Speaking personally, I think it's actually rather important that a
considerable proportion of list replies be public.  Without
belaboring the point (?this is *me* saying that?) if all replies were
private the list would simply be an on-demand FAQ rather than a
community; and furthermore nobody would ever know whether the OP had
been satisfactorily answered or not.

>if someone asks a question to the list , it's my understanding that we
>should be replying to that person for the most part...
>I have plastic ramps also and could have chimed in but after 4 others
>already did i held back my 2 pennys worth...

If your two-bits worth (inflation) didn't duplicate what was already
there, why deprive us of it?  Granted there's plenty of duplication;
the mechanics of a mailing list almost guarantee it.

>i am pretty sure there has just been a bunch of emails about lol and
>BS and WTF.... well this is the same Idea.
>we all want to be heard but ( me included ) but it's just silly to
>think that everybody on the list wants to hear the answers to every
>question..

Agreed.  But that's nowhere near saying that nobody on the list wants
to hear the answers to any question.  There's an element of personal
choice here -- the answers are offered for your use and/or pleasure,
but if you don't wish to use or be pleased by some message or some
thread, don't look at it (the moderators would like me to suggest
that because of their sterling personal qualities and almost
unheard-of wisdom, messages marked as "Mod" or "Moderator" are
intrinsically interesting, at least to the point of a cursory
glance).  One reason to read other people's answers is to start to
develop an idea about who of us has a fair grasp of our subject and
who not.  Another is serendipity.

Yours,
David