Recent oddities

[Martin Holt]

Hi Group,

I'm aware of recent oddities in how the group is working, and before I bring
in Google, I'd like to try a quick survey which might help resolve the
issues.

Please respond to me m861...@btinternet.com and not to the group.

1. Peter Flom sent out an email Dec 12 9.16pm, containing "the LANGUAGE is
confusing". This email did not reach me. Is there anyone else who did not
receive it ? John Whittington referred to it as "At 16:16 12/12/2009 -0500,
Peter Flom wrote:" note 16.16 not 21.16....but then there's -0500 so maybe
I just don't understand the language here, as 16+5=21.

2. Peter's emails are coming out doubly addressed to MedStats...is anyone
else experiencing this ?

3. We had those odd delivery notes from joelmfrancis and from mdimairo on
the 11th December. Both had no knowledge of them, and they seem to have
gone: did anyone not receive them ? did you two change any settings ?

4. New joiners: did anyone experience difficulty joining ? I'm not sure if
anyone who couldn't join for some strange reason can see my address above
(although I know you can read this), but if you can find a way of reaching
me I'd be glad to hear from you.

Sorry for an admin email, but if there is anything going on, I want to catch
it soon. It's probably Google. What I find strange is that these "oddities"
are affecting only a couple of people at a time, apparently, when you might
expect it to be everyone.

Best Wishes,
Martin

[Martin Holt]

An update.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Martin Holt" <m861...@btinternet.com>
To: <MedS...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, December 13, 2009 3:31 PM
Subject: {MEDSTATS} Recent oddities


> Hi Group,
>
> I'm aware of recent oddities in how the group is working, and before I
> bring
> in Google, I'd like to try a quick survey which might help resolve the
> issues.
>
> Please respond to me m861...@btinternet.com and not to the group.
>
> 1. Peter Flom sent out an email Dec 12 9.16pm, containing "the LANGUAGE is
> confusing". This email did not reach me. Is there anyone else who did not
> receive it ? John Whittington referred to it as "At 16:16
> 12/12/2009 -0500,
> Peter Flom wrote:" note 16.16 not 21.16....but then there's -0500 so
> maybe
> I just don't understand the language here, as 16+5=21.

Those receiving Digests also did not receive this posting. My final check
on -my- system (webmail) isn't working.

>
> 2. Peter's emails are coming out doubly addressed to MedStats...is anyone
> else experiencing this ?

To be clear, Peter is now seeing meds...@googlegroups.com
<meds...@googlegroups.com>; meds...@googlegroups.com
<meds...@googlegroups.com> in his "To" box. He hasn't changed anything.
Again, those receiving Digests are seeing only one address.

>
> 3. We had those odd delivery notes from joelmfrancis and from mdimairo on
> the 11th December. Both had no knowledge of them, and they seem to have
> gone: did anyone not receive them ? did you two change any settings ?

Thanks to Ted: these are Blackberry-related...something to look out for in
the future.

>
> 4. New joiners: did anyone experience difficulty joining ? I'm not sure if
> anyone who couldn't join for some strange reason can see my address above
> (although I know you can read this), but if you can find a way of reaching
> me I'd be glad to hear from you.

Nothing but positive feedback here.

>
> Sorry for an admin email, but if there is anything going on, I want to
> catch
> it soon. It's probably Google. What I find strange is that these
> "oddities"
> are affecting only a couple of people at a time, apparently, when you
> might
> expect it to be everyone.

I'll get on to Google about the Digests - they also changed to HTML on the
12th, away from plain text (preferred). If anyone receiving Digests is _not_
seeing the above effects (HTML, single Peter Flom address, did receive
specific Peter Flom email), please let me know.

Thanks for your patience, but this has been a big help.
>
> Best Wishes,
> Martin
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> To post a new thread to MedStats, send email to MedS...@googlegroups.com
> .
> MedStats' home page is http://groups.google.com/group/MedStats .
> Rules: http://groups.google.com/group/MedStats/web/medstats-rules
>

[John Whittington]

At 10:13 14/12/2009 +0000, Martin Holt wrote (in part):
> > 3. We had those odd delivery notes from joelmfrancis and from mdimairo on
> > the 11th December. Both had no knowledge of them, and they seem to have
> > gone: did anyone not receive them ? did you two change any settings ?
>
>Thanks to Ted: these are Blackberry-related...something to look out for in
>the future.

I'm not so sure that Blackberry's are the complete answer, and think that
there may be a more important lesson to be learned...

As far as I can make out, the primary problem was probably the fact that
the two messages posted to the list at 15:08 and 16:16 on Friday by David
Braunholtz both included a 'Return Receipt Request' which (somewhat to my
surprise) was passed on by googlegroups when the message was distributed to
the list. This could explain the 'Successfully delivered' messages that
were returned by a couple of members (joelmfrancis & mdimairo) to the group
(and then distributed) on Friday AND the 'Deleted without reading' message
from J.Godolphin that most of us have probably seen this morning. Whilst
the 'receipt responses' distributed to the list on Friday did, indeed,
originate from Blackberrys, that does not seem to have been the case with
the response from J.Godolphin.

If I'm right in my diagnosis, I guess that the moral would be for us all to
avoid including 'Return Receipt Requests' in messages posted to the group.
For some people, that may require specific intervention, if inclusion of
such a request is a default setting of their e-mail system. As for the
Blackberry connection, maybe automatic responses to receipt requests is a
default setting of Blackberries??

Kind Regards,


John

----------------------------------------------------------------
Dr John Whittington, Voice: +44 (0) 1296 730225
Mediscience Services Fax: +44 (0) 1296 738893
Twyford Manor, Twyford, E-mail: Joh...@mediscience.co.uk
Buckingham MK18 4EL, UK
----------------------------------------------------------------

[Peter Flom]

Oddly enough, I got this from John twice.

To quote Bob Dylan

Something strange is happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear.

:-)

Peter

>--
>To post a new thread to MedStats, send email to MedS...@googlegroups.com .
>MedStats' home page is http://groups.google.com/group/MedStats .
>Rules: http://groups.google.com/group/MedStats/web/medstats-rules

Peter L. Flom, PhD
Statistical Consultant
Website: www DOT peterflomconsulting DOT com
Writing; http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/582880/peter_flom.html
Twitter: @peterflom

[Martin Holt]

Thanks to John.....this is why John is a Manager of the group ! My only
query would be, is this really the first time that someone has used "Return
Receipt Request".....quite possibly so.....or maybe Google have changed
something. I have emailed Google. Peter Flom had his email address as his
nickname, so we're looking into that.

I'd appreciate it if people would email me or John direct, i.e. offline. I
know a lot of members don't want to track this. I'll summarise at the
appropriate time.

Best Wishes,
Martin

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Whittington" <Joh...@mediscience.co.uk>
To: <meds...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Monday, December 14, 2009 11:03 AM
Subject: Re: {MEDSTATS} Recent oddities