On topic? Mailing list humor...

From: Aaron Christopher Finney <A_Finney_at_wfi-inc.com>
Date: Sun Nov 29 16:35:49 1998

I debated whether to post this; I'm sure some of you have seen it before.
My apologies for wasted bandwidth and all...


Q: How many classiccmp subscribers does it take to change a light bulb?


A: 1,331:

1 to successfully change the light bulb and to post to the mail list that
the light bulb has been changed

14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light
bulb could have been changed differently.

7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs.

27 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light
bulbs.

53 to flame the spell checkers

156 to write to the list administrator complaining about the light bulb
discussion and its inappropriateness to this mail list.

41 to correct spelling in the spelling/grammar flames.

109 to post that this list is not about light bulbs and to please take
this email exchange to alt.lite.bulb

203 to demand that cross posting to alt.grammar, alt.spelling and
alt.punctuation about changing light bulbs be stopped.

111 to defend the posting to this list saying that we are all use light
bulbs and therefore the posts **are** relevant to this mail list.

306 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to
buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this
technique, and what brands are faulty.

27 to post URLs where one can see examples of different light bulbs

14 to post that the URLs were posted incorrectly, and to post corrected
URLs.

3 to post about links they found from the URLs that are relevant to this
list which makes light bulbs relevant to this list.

33 to concatenate all posts to date, then quote them including all headers
and footers, and then add "Me Too."

12 to post to the list that they are unsubscribing because they cannot
handle the light bulb controversey.

19 to quote the "Me Too's" to say, "Me Three."

4 to suggest that posters request the light bulb FAQ.

1 to propose new alt.change.lite.bulb newsgroup.

47 to say that [as long as the lightbulb or fixture is greater than ten
years old] this is just what this mailing list was meant for, leave it
here.

143 votes for a new list alt.lite.bulb.




Aaron C. Finney Systems Administrator WFI Incorporated
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"UNIX is an exponential algorithm with a seductively small constant."
Received on Sun Nov 29 1998 - 16:35:49 GMT