Martin Jacobs wrote:

Much has been written here about those who do not thank the answerers for answers
they receive on ViewMate (most do, but some still do not). I would like to write
about a related topic: people who close their posts before they receive an
adequate answer.

Please tell us what time-out you consider to be "prematurely".

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Evertjan Hannivoort.
The Netherlands.
(Please change the x'es to dots in my emailaddress)

Much has been written here about those who do not thank the answerers for
answers they receive on ViewMate (most do, but some still do not). I would like
to write about a related topic: people who close their posts before they receive
an adequate answer. Just this morning (and this is not an isolated instance) I
opened a post asking for a translation of a Yiddish letter. There was already a
partial answer, which however gave little of the genealogical information in the
letter, but, when I went to translate it and provide this information, I found
that the post was closed. Can anyone tell me why someone would do that when
there was so much more to be learned?

Martin Jacobs
Brooklyn, NY

looking for JAKUBOVICS and FRIED Sobrance and Ubrez, Slovakia; KAPLAN, PERKAL,
and FERKEL Goworowo and Lomzha, Poland

You should remember that someone asking for a translation on ViewMate is most
unlikely to be able to read the item in question and therefore will not know that
there may be more information to be revealed by another translator. They may well
believe that the first answer is providing all the information that is available,
especially if they are not regular users.

Peter Zavon
Penfield, NY

PZAVON@...

"Martin Jacobs" <marjacobs1@...> wrote

I don't see why it is ever necessary to close a post - you cut yourself off >from
the possibility of learnng something more. In the post I had in mind, the
poster closed the post after one day, having received one reply to his request
for translation of a Yiddish letter. The translation was incomplete, and
several items of genealogical importance were left out. The closing took place
between my first seeing the post and my readiness to translate, a period of just
a few minutes.

Why would someone want to cut himself off >from possible further information? It
makes the potential answerer think: why bother, if this is how interested the
inquirer really is? You could of course say that the poster thought the answer
was complete, but after just one day? Why the impatience? Why not wait to see
if something additional is forthcoming?

I should add that this is not the first time I have seen posts prematurely
closed, and information therefore missed.

Martin Jacobs
Brooklyn, NY
marjacobs1@...