[Air-l] Answering questions on mailing lists & general mailing list notes

[Jeremy Hunsinger]

The cost of individual embarassment, I argue is grossly outweighed by  
the mutual benefit of shared communal knowledge and community  
building of the current settings.  It is clear to me that from any  
individual perspective, who might feel individual harm, that the harm  
will always seem to outweigh the communal good, this is why we have  
to be wary of the argument of individual harm, it is a variation of  
the classic 'utility monster' problem of all arguments from utility.   
If someone feels so significantly more harmed or harmable than  
others, then the community is left with no response, in pursuit of a  
shared good defined in utility, than to modify their actions to the  
period of no harm.  In fact, if harm is an issue, the slippery slide  
is that we should just close the list, as that is the only way of  
preventing the harm mentioned.

The best way to solve the issue of harm from misposting is two fold.   
First we recognize that harm will occur, and when it does, we should  
sympathize and care for the harmed as one of us, and help them  
recover as best as we can.   The second best way is to encourage  
people to be aware of the list settings, a 'list literacy' campaign....