netiquette: taking Usenet material to e-mail

[Bill Evans]

I know it's against netiquette to quote e-mail in a Usenet
article without the permission of the author, but what about
the reverse?

That is to say, is it against netiquette to take a matter of
public discussion in a Usenet newsgroup and spin off a
private discussion in e-mail with one participant?

[Marius Gavrilescu]

Post by Bill Evans
That is to say, is it against netiquette to take a matter of
public discussion in a Usenet newsgroup and spin off a
private discussion in e-mail with one participant?

No idea about netiquette, but my line of thinking goes like this:

It shouldn't be, as public discussion in a Usenet newsgroup is, as you
said, public. The email recipient would have been able to stumble upon
the discussion without outside help.

Furthermore, as the private discussion is between you and somebody who
wasn't involved in the discussion you are quoting, there's nobody to
chastise you for quoting it.

[Bill Evans]

Post by Marius Gavrilescu

Post by Bill Evans
That is to say, is it against netiquette to take a matter of
public discussion in a Usenet newsgroup and spin off a
private discussion in e-mail with one participant?

It shouldn't be, as public discussion in a Usenet newsgroup is, as you
said, public. The email recipient would have been able to stumble upon
the discussion without outside help.
Furthermore, as the private discussion is between you and somebody who
wasn't involved in the discussion you are quoting, there's nobody to
chastise you for quoting it.

The situation I had in mind was not to discuss the topic
with someone who was not following the newsgroup; it was to
start a related discussion with someone who was already
following the main discussion. Perhaps I needed background
information that the other person might be able to provide,
where others in the discussion already knew the answer.
Perhaps it might be something related to the original
discussion, but was of a delicate nature, or something where
a certain amount of discretion or privacy was desired.

[Marius Gavrilescu]

Post by Bill Evans
The situation I had in mind was not to discuss the topic
with someone who was not following the newsgroup; it was to
start a related discussion with someone who was already
following the main discussion.

Oh. This is only a problem if the discussion should have been public
and it isn't. One (common) such example is when somebody asks a
question and somebody else provides an answer privately. If the answer
is instead posted publicly, others can benefit from it.

Post by Bill Evans
Perhaps I needed background information that the other
person might be able to provide, where others in the
discussion already knew the answer.

In this case there is no reason why you would have posted it publicly.
You aren't depriving anyone of information. Thus, you aren't violating
any nettiquette rule (or at least that's what *I* think).

Post by Bill Evans
Perhaps it might be something related to the original
discussion, but was of a delicate nature, or something where
a certain amount of discretion or privacy was desired.

Even more so in this situation. The other party will (hopefully)
understand the delicateness of the message (or you can point it out
explicitly if need), so they won't ask you to repeat it in public.