[ccp4bb]: anonymity

["David J. Schuller" <djs63@cornell.edu>]

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On Mon, 22 Oct 2001, lothar esser wrote:

> Your comments are probably the reason why people
> vote for anonymous postings to the ccp4bb.

This is exactly not the case for me.  I am strongly opposed to the idea of
anonymous postings, and I imagine that flame wars would become much worse
if they were allowed.  For example, a week ago when someone asked how to
get rid of water rings, no one had the nerve to suggest Lemon Pledge. That
might not be the case if it could be suggested anonymously. For the current
case, someone would undoubtedly note that the posting was from Montana
State, and then we'd be off on the sheep jokes.  But you're certainly not
going to get any sheep jokes out of me today, for I am signing my name
to this.

I also noticed the grammatical error that began this line of discussion.
Although I wouldn't have posted anything about it, I do think more care is
expected in a job advert than in a mundane inquiry about how to use an
obscure feature of program X. I will note that the error would not likely
have been caught by a spellchecker, since "your" and "you're" are both
accepted words.  If I had felt like commenting, I might have replied
directly to the original author without spamming my response to the full
BB.

If someone does want to inquire about an obscure feature of program X I
fear that the possibility of anonymous postings would make use of the BB
too easy.  The BB is a great resource, but I would recommend that it
be placed last in a list of several options:
1) RTFM
2) ask your more experienced labmates
3) read the source code (and isn't it great that this is possible?)
4) ask the BB

cheers,

=======================================================================
"He was pinched perspiringly in the epistemological dilemma of the skeptic,
unable to accept solutions to problems he was unwilling to dismiss as
unsolvable." - Joseph Heller
=======================================================================
                        David J. Schuller
                        modern man in a post-modern world
                        MacCHESS, Cornell University
                        djs63@cornell.edu