[pp.int.general] Before you press send...

[Ikke]

Before you press send, please ensure you've actually written an email.

Before I give in to the desire of unsubscribing, let's give enlightening
the over active users of this mailing list a last try. It might be hard to
imagine, but not everyone on this mailinglist is interested in your trite
banter. Perhaps indeed the Somali pirates have cheaper boats, perhaps
indeed planes pose a treat to balloons, perhaps sharing this is not
something that needs to be done here. With the advent of modern internet
there is a development in programs specifically designed to serve this
purpose: chat programs. If you are unaware of their existence, please find
yourself another party. 

What most people are interested in however, is the state in which they find
their inbox. When I open up my inbox and I find a good 50 mails from this
mailinglist, most of them from 4-5 users, I know that a good 90% isn't even
worth opening. There is a very simple procedure I, and many others with me,
follow on daily basis: I select the top email, I press shift and I select
the bottom email, and I press the most adequately named key on my keyboard:
delete. This fills me with 2 negative emotions: on one hand I'm annoyed at
having to through this effort every day, on the other I slightly regret
that I might delete that one well thought out mail along with the trash I
didn't bother to sort. 

To help you in your decision making process, if any, when your mouse is
hovering over the send button, I've written a simple algorithm for you to
follow.

if (Does this email contain new information relevant to the topic,
preferably with references so that it might actually be used in further
discourse? == yes)
{Good! You're actually making a contribution to the topic at hand,
advancing our cause, you may press send.}
else if (Does this email contain constructive criticism regarding logical
fallacies, gaps in required knowledge, structural inadequacies or other
argument-technical properties? == yes)
{Provided you are reasonably assured that this is indeed the case, you may
press send.}
else if (Steering dangerously close to baseless opinion now, but maybe your
email then at least contains some creative perspective, questions to deepen
the topic at hand, or something that is at least in any way relevant to the
pirate parties? == yes)
{Odds are you had better not send it and use a chat program instead, but
hey, roll the dice if you're feeling lucky, punk.}
else if (Upon closer inspection, could my literary efforts more accurately
be described as shitting in everyone's inbox because I love the smell of my
own farts? == yes)
{Use a chat program instead, there is an IRC server with a lovely #ppi
channel where the air will be cleaned whenever I close the program.}
else {Go to xvideo.com & fap because I'm not interested. Alternatively,
browse the alt.suicide.holiday archives for inspiration.}

Thank you for your attention.