On Mon, 13 May 1996, Bob Edgar wrote:
> > I just got back from a vacation in Germany and was wondering if there was a
>way
> > to organize or sort the messages on the list to avoid having to sift/scan
>though
> > forty or
> > fifty letters a day to find the stuff I can use? I get the digest rather
>than
> > individual messages, as this was recommended to me. I think Brian Lanoway
> > suggested the possibility of a Compuserve type of forum about ten days
>ago, but
> > I can't remember where I saw it, and I didn't see any responses on the SOL
> > list. I love the SOL list, it's just too hard to find stuff and organize
>into
> > files every day, and even though I've only been a subscriber for a month or
>so
> > I've already got too much to deal with.
>
> I've just got back from a weekend away, and there were over 100
> messages waiting for me, over 90 of which were from the Triumph list.
>
> How about separating the TRs from the Spitfires/GT6s/Heralds with two
> separate lists?
>
I hate to bring this up again, but a solution might be to have a
newsgroup working in conjunction with the mailing list.
The beauty of the newsgroup is that with a threaded news reader (God's
own gift to USENET) you can read through news messages much faster than
you can read through your mailbox, and it is easier to follow a
discussion since related articles are "threaded" together.
The problem is, of course, that the signal/noise ratio of a newsgroup
is usually less than that of a mailing list, which is one of (if not
*the* reason) mailing lists exist in the first place.
There might be a nice compromise, however.
The mailing list could send posts to the newsgroup, so when a person
mails the list, it automatically gets posted to the newsgroup. It should
be possible to keep posts to the newsgroup from propigating to the
mailing list, unless the poster specifically lists the mailing list in
the TO: field. When the list forwards posts to the newsgroup, it should
not list "triumphs@autox.team.net" in the FROM:, and if possible it could
strip this from the TO: field of the original post as well. This would
keep responses to a post from automatically being forwarded to the list.
It is a little more complicated (well, maybee a bit more than a little),
and I know the list maintainer is doing us a fabulous service and
donating too much of his time for us already. However, I think this
might be the best type of solution for all involved, and the
autoforwarding machine (mail->news gateway) can be separate from
autox.team.net. I'd love to volunteer, but I do not have the resources
(yet). I'd be glad to help anyone set this up.
Just my $2200 worth (hey, I'm a consultant ;-) )
Greg U
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