In going through submissions to BEE-L, I notice that there are getting to be
some pretty huge and unnecessary quotes from previous messages and massive
signatures. Please cease and desist.
I also notice some questions being asked that are *easily* answered from the
archives.
BEE-L is a forum for INFORMED discussion of beekeeping. That means you must
do your homework before asking questions.
Don't get me wrong. Bee-ginner questions are most welcome, but they should
come after a little research does not solve the problem. BEE-L is not a
chat forum. It is a moderated list that aims to have quality content. We
don't wish to refuse any post, so I'm writing here to encourage participants
to exercise their good judgement in posting. The goal is to keep the
quality of the content up so that those who read the list get something
worthwhile every time, and so that archive searches do not return junk and
redundant material.
sci.agriculture.beekeeping is a forum that accepts anything, and has no
standards. I encourage all to visit it and read it. I do, when I have
time. It is a good source of information and a good place to go for those
don't want to meet BEE-L's standards.
With the recent improvement of DejaNews's searches and newsreading (they
even email you the posts if you want, much like BEE-L),
sci.agriculture.beekeeping is much more useable, and their archives are very
searchable. There is some overlap in participation btween BEE-L and
sci.agriculture.beekeeping, and I do like to go there, but I frankly find
some of the banter a waste of bandwidth that makes reading the group
tiresome. Nonetheless there are some participants on
sci.agriculture.beekeeping that never come here on BEE-L, and some of them
make very worthwhile posts.
Back to BEE-L: A case in point where homework should be done before posting
to BEE-L is a question just received about using ziplok(r) bags for feeders.
I can understand that there are some subjects that are hard to search
because the best keywords might be elusive, but this one could be answered
by a simple email to [log in to unmask] saying SEARCH BEE-L ZIP
I searched --it took 1 minute to get a reply -- but I'm quoting only a
*partial* list here.
There were over 100 hits:
...
Titles
006241 95/10/20 08:15 26 Re: Cheap In-Hive feeding
006242 95/10/20 09:03 43 Re: Cheap In-Hive feeding
006253 95/10/20 20:23 34 Re: Cheap In-Hive feeding
006254 95/10/21 08:59 22 Re: BEE-L Digest - 19 Oct 1995 to 20 Oct 1995
006256 95/10/22 16:44 22 Re: Cheap In-Hive feeding
006258 95/10/23 18:15 51 Re: Cheap In-Hive feeding
006437 95/11/10 11:15 32 Re: Addresses
...
There are many good reasons to search before you post a question. One of
the most important is that if the question has been well answered on the
list, even years ago, the answers you get will often be from the least
informed members, and those with time to waste. Those who took a lot of
time to answer in depth the first time will usually sit by and wince, and
involve themselves with new matters -- or even unsubscribe in boredom.
That is not to say that after you have taken a few minutes to get up to
speed by querying the LISTSERV, a new and fresh question on some detail that
was not well explained, or on some new observation will not elicit good
responses and add valuable info to the archives.
Although questions are the basis for many of our best discussions, some
memebrs also take the time to write essays on what they are doing and what
they think and post them here for criticism and for the public good. You
all know and appreciate those who do. We need more of these people and this
type of input. Could you be one?
I hope this note will be taken in the spirit in which it is intended, and
that members will make good use of the archives, and continue to post
intelligent question, comments, and observations -- after doing a little
homework.
Respectfully,
allen
http://www.internode.net/HoneyBee/
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