at the temporal coordinates: 1/2/02 11:27 AM, the entity known as doppler at
doppler_at_mac.com conveyed the following:
>
> ***my own, subjective estimate - less than 1/2 of all posts are relevant***
>
I agree that there's a fair traffic in irrelevant messages. The problem is
that what's irrelevant to one may not be to another. I see it as the "tax"
we pay for having a large and active community. Like all taxes, we grumble
about it, but in the end there's significant benefit for the community as a
whole.
***SNIP***
>
> 1. list maestros, please change the reply address so that it equals the
> original sender, instead of todays <newtontalk_at_newtontalk.net>. this would
> save a whole lot of personal letters to slip out in public. i use other
> lists that have nearly as many users, but they dont get flooded that often,
> thanks to this policy. (what would be avoided qite easily then, is the so
> common replies to "FS" msgs, completely irrellevan to everyone except for
> the two people involved in the deal.)
Nope! NOT a good idea. This would quickly kill the list. Look at how many
people fail to change their subject line from "Newtontalk Digest #xxx..."
If people can't remember to change the subject line to something meaningful
when replying to a digested message, they certainly won't remember to change
the e-mail addy to the list.
That said, we all need to be careful about sending 800 "me too" messages to
the list when they ought to go to the individual who actually needs to know.
>
> 2. list members, please use the FAQ <http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/>
AMEN! But additionally, we need folks to document their discoveries, etc.
Even if something isn't *frequently* asked, if it's incredibly useful to
you, chances are it'll be useful to others. So, document it and get it put
into the FAQ.
>
> 3. list members, please use subject lines more active than today. many times
> one can see mails that have spun off from its original thread. this is a bit
> sad, when you expect to open a certain mail that turns out to contain
> something completely different from what was stated in the subject line.
> often, useful information is deleted because of this.
AMEN to this too... The entire point is that one shouldn't simply JUST hit
the 'SEND' button without reviewing both the subject line and whether the
message is even appropriate for the list (vs. replying off-list).
>
> 4. list maestros AND list members, please do not hesitate to moderate the
> list more actively in those matters. i know it is a weired request to
> involve the list members also, since list maestros are the only one that
> should moderate, but in this case, i believe it is good if we all do what we
> can to diminish the heavy mail burden of today.
Ummm... You do realize, don't you, that this invites an additional flood of
replies to off-topic threads. Replies along the lines of "Hey, take it
off-list...", which are themselves off-topic and therefore 'noise' on the
list. This happens now, and sometimes it's more annoying than the original
off-topic thread.
By and large, folks *have* been doing a better job of marking off-topic
items with [OT] and for-sale items with [FS]. If anyone doesn't want to see
these, they are free to filter out subjects containing those strings.
- Eric.
--Eric Strobel (fyzycyst_at_NOSPAM^mailaps.org)
===================================================================== Remember... Moderation in all things, INCLUDING MODERATION!! =====================================================================
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Feb 01 2002 - 16:01:42 EST