On Mon, 28 Jun 2004 01:16:17 -0700, "Max Hauser"
> wrote:

>"Midlife" > wrote:
>. . .
>> It seems that there is a pattern that occurs on these 'boards'
>> where long-time posters periodically become annoyed by
>> newer people bringing up tired, over-done subjects. That's
>> totally understandable. But somewhere in the Newsgroup
>> etiquette archives there must be something about how to
>> discourage that politely.
>
>Good point "Midlife" and I apologize to other readers for my sensitivity on
>this point, and to Mr. Bueno.
>
>The issue of the repetitive query on newsgroups (which Google singled out in
>the quotation) is very old, and has worn some of us down, and it seems to be
>accelerating. Suggestions for gracious handling would be welcome. (I have
>searched.)

I think it is all a question of balance here. Personally I have not
been offended by any of Leo's posts. In fact I think it is generally
a well-disciplined group all round.

More generally, on the subject of questions that could be answered by
dictionaries, and repeat discussions, I think to an extent the onus is
on all of us to deal with them by replying directly with a FAQ
reference or link to another website, or - even better - try to inject
life into the thread. For example, I am sure there are many factoids
about hogsheads that dictionary.com does not reveal. Likewise - there
are potentially many new angles on old topics.

--
Steve Slatcher
http://pobox.com/~steve.slatcher