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On March 3, Stephen Wardwell wrote - there are some questions of
"netiquette" ...
 
I noticed that it is not Stephen who has PD, but his father.
Therefore, I feel obliged to use the soap box to address these
questions one last time.
 
1. INCLUDING ALL OF AN ORIGINAL MESSAGE - agreed, the whole message
need not be sent and a message "I absolutely agree" without some part
of the previous message is not helpful. However, we are not all
computer and/or internet gurus, as Don Peckham said of himself the
other day.
 
2. A PERSONAL MESSAGE SHOULD BE SENT TO THE PERSON INTENDED - agreed,
but again, the above applies.
 
3. MAKE SUBJECT HEADERS MORE SPECIFIC - agreed, but there are often
times when we with PD have great difficulty with fine motor skills,
rigidity, tremor, etc. During these times when we would not be able
to hold a pen, much less write, we can peck away at a keyboard, and
typing one word in a subject header may be an accomplishment,
especially if that person is having a bad day. The bad days are often
when we need the contact with our peers the most. Once diagnosed with
PD, few of us would ignore anything with the word SINEMET in it.
Though someone else's dosage may be somewhat meaningless to some, but
because PD is such an individualistic condition, and everyone reacts
differently to the meds involved, I would guess that most of us are
extremely interested to read about other people's meds and dosages.
This is true of any topic that may not pertain to everyone, but Janet
Paterson said it best - 'posting a message to this list is like
planting a seed.'
 
4. NO SUBJECT HEADERS - I also prefer to know something about what I
am going to read, but as has already been pointed out, it can be done
inadvertently. I recently sent a letter to my son and just as I
clicked on 'send' realized I had not typed anything in the subject
header. Not that it mattered in that case, but to err is human. It
should be remembered too, that PD is a neurological disorder and
short term memory loss is no stranger to us. If we are distressed we
are probably more concerned with getting our message out than
worrying about a subject header.
 
 THE PURPOSE OF THIS LIST IS TO GIVE SUPPORT AND EXCHANGE INFORMATION
TO HELP US COPE WITH PARKINSON'S DISEASE. If it helps us become more
knowledgeable about computers and the internet along the way - hurray
for us, because for a once active person to be forced to admit that
he/she cannot do all the things that were once possible can be quite
traumatic, and often there is a great sense of loss of self esteem.
The people on this list are extremely knowledgeable and caring and
there is all kinds of factual information to be gleaned from the
archives and perhaps that would be more helpful to some.
 I apologize if I have offended anyone - that was not my intent, but
concerns about too full mailboxes, where and how mail got sent, seem
rather trivial when one is trying to cope with PD and all the
implications.
 I will jump off the soap box now - I can say 'jump' because it has
been a reasonably good day.
 Keep well all.
 
Judith   54/3