On Tue, 4 May 2004 at 12:23am, Justin Gombos wrote

> Mail-Followup-To: amanda-users AT amanda DOT org
> 
> * Jon LaBadie <jon AT jgcomp DOT com> [2004-05-02 12:44]:
> > On Sun, May 02, 2004 at 12:44:16PM -0600, Justin Gombos wrote:
> > > 
> > > > IMHO this was rather rude way to bring up the issue, 
> > > 
> > > First of all, I did not know whether this was an issue, that's why I
> > > posted here.  It was certainly proper to raise an Amanda
> > > issue/question to the amanda-users mailing list.
> > 
> > The rude part was not your posting a question about the design of
> > amanda to this list.  The rudeness came when you described an aspect
> > of amanda as "incredibly stupid" in your first posting to a list
> > that contains among it membership several people who have
> > contributed to amanda's development.  Few people like to hear their
> > work described as stupid.  
> 
> It seemed like an incredibly stupid limitation to me.  That is my
> opinion.  Opinions are often welcome on mailing lists, even if they
> are offensive.  It was not an ad hominem, or a flame.  It was a remark
> about the functionality of a tool, and should be accepted.  If you
> disagree, you are welcome to state your opinion that it would be
> stupid for Amanda to support such functionality.

*Informed* opinions are particularly welcome on mailing lists.  A quick 
search of the list archives (available in multiple places) would have 
educated you as to the rationale behind this "limitation".  And, even if 
you disagree with said rationale, insulting language (see: incredibly 
stupid) is not the way to go about trying to convince people of your point 
of view.  This is beyond basic netiquette, it's basic people skills.

-- 
Joshua Baker-LePain
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Duke University