[MR] New List, Too many post, Signal to noise et al.

[pandora at his.com]

Hey there folks, I usually lurk here but I decided that I would throw in my 2 
cents worth. 

It appears to me that the issue on all sides is not what is being diseminated 
but rather the volume that makes it difficult for some people to decide which 
posts they would like to read and which they can skip. This is typical of most 
lists unless they are strictly run and violators are censored.

However, on some of the lists that I belong to the issue has been alleviated by 
adding an additional identifier to the subject line. You have seen it here 
occasionaly but it might help us and quell any concerns about reading the list. 

What we do on other lists is add a prefix after the list identifier.
For example:

      Subject: [MR] OT   -   Could mean the message is off topic
      Subject: [MR] ANNC  -   Could mean the message is an announcement
      Subject: [MR] HUMOR   -   Could mean the message is Humor
      Subject: [MR] SCHTICK  -   Could mean the message is schtick 
etc...

Now you may ask how does this help. First, it readily identifies the message 
type so you can find the ones you want to read easily. Second, puts a unique 
identifier in the subject that you can use to filter your messages. Most email 
programs these days have filtering capabilities that will allow you to have 
your incoming mail scanned and sorted to appropriate folders. (Some times it is 
referred to as Rules) If you want help with filtering let me know and I will 
try to help you. 

All of this information can be added to the welcome message that is generated 
when you join this list.

With that type of labeling there would not be a need for a separate list since 
you can easily scan for the types of messages that you want to read. Although 
it would mean that posters to the list would have to take personal 
responsibility to add the prefix to their subject line. 

Another tip that I was taught is that you can filter your originals to one 
folder and all the replies to a post to a separate folder. This allows you to 
scan original post to see if a subject is one you want to read more on and if 
not you can just delete it from the replies folder. This might be useful for 
you and it might not but it is a thought. 


Anyway. I hope this helps alleviate some of the clutter. 

Chimbai
GDH




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