On Mon, 18 Apr 2005 12:59:49 -0700, David wrote:

if OP's interacted with the responders to their threads, within a
reasonable time frame, so that those who took the time to answer their
question(s)(or posted an opinion that was requested) wouldn't feel they
were wasting their time?

Seems to me that's just common decency. Wouldn't a day be about the
right time frame to expect the OP to post either his general "thanks" or
ask more questions, or debate some issues raised by the responders?

Or am I expecting too much?

You're probably expecting too much. FWIW, I try to follow up any
thread that I originate or post in at all, but it's the busy season at
work right now, and sometimes I put in 14 hour days. When that
happens, it's kind of hard to remember to follow every damn thing I
ever looked at on Usenet. Common courtesy is great, but don't get too
hung up on it if someone doesn't gush over a one line "Do A Google
Search" reply. It could be that they've got a sick kid at home, or an
eighty-hour workweek, or even got abducted by little green men. Hell,
anything could have happened. Maybe they already found the answer,
and they're busy working on that rush project they posted about.

The only way to keep the group healthy is to share what you can when
you can, and let the little **** roll off you. It's nice to get
validation for your response, sure- but if you don't, why loose any
sleep over it? Look at it this way- it's going into the archives, and
you could helping someone a dozen years from now, and maybe *they* are
going to be up to whatever standards you expect from a usenet citizen.
Lots of folks are lurkers- you're helping them too, even though
they're too shy to jump right in and speak.
Aut inveniam viam aut faciam