[sapug] Python 101 cheat sheet

[stephen white]

On 04/09/2006, at 6:27 PM, Michael Cohen wrote:
>   I for one like Romanas feed. I certainly learn a lot from it. The  
> whole point
>   of a mailing list is to share information relevant to the topic.  
> Otherwise

I understand the purpose of a mailing list, but linkdumping isn't one  
of them. Consider what would happen if more people dumped their links  
into mailing lists, and it's easy to see why it's not a good idea.

It takes time to compose and present a message that is meant to be  
read by other people. This time and investment of effort is quality  
filter that makes people think twice before taking other people's  
attention.

When messages are written, tens to hundreds, possibly thousands, of  
people are going to be looking and spending at least some fraction of  
time to decide whether it is something that they want to know about.

The minimal and thoughtless twitch reflex involved in dumping a link  
is disrespectful of that conglomerate attention.

That is why it is good to include a write-up presenting the author's  
own opinions (not just a cut-paste from the article) to explain why  
the article is interesting. It acknowledges the existence of the  
people in the local group, tying information to ongoing conversations  
and recurrent topics.

A dump and a cut/paste is generic, rather like sending a form letter  
to family and friends.

--
   steve at adam.com.au