I never liked the notion of private ping. It's not that I want to gauge my
attendance based on the number of blips on the screen... but, if I'm going
to move a mountain (Don... ;-) I'd like some idea of who I might meet on the
other side.
In some cases, with the sub-structure we now have, if certain folks can't
make it, whole topics go un-discussed (Jay, Dave - Channels; Jay - SENSE;
Tom, Ron - Jobs).
I would not have queried for NYC attendance if
1. Larry hadn't indicated very light attendance
2. I saw the mountain moving rather than realizing it is really the tip
of an iceberg.
3. There had been public pings.
Yes, it's prudent and polite to reduce irritating mail. Keeping in touch with
what is happening in the PWG, who you are likely to meet with and what is
likely to occur prior to embarking on a long, expensive journey, is not
so irritating in my book.
Harry Lewis - IBM Printing Systems