[ale] Request to Reduce Off Topic Posts

[Larry Johnson]

On Mon, Jul 12, 2010 at 10:03 PM, Robert Reese <ale at sixit.com> wrote:

> Hello James,
>
> Monday, July 12, 2010, 3:47:07 PM, you wrote:
>
> > Tell it to Google.
>
> > But really, it doesn't make sense to change the subject of an email to
> > start a new thread. If you have a different topic to talk about then
> > start a new thread. "Was this" and "Used to be that" parentheticals
> > are just as annoying as having to re-mute the thread.
>
> As one of those that do change the subject line, I need to explain my
> choice to remain doing so.  In fact, I consider the changing of the subject
> line to be following etiquette rather than going against it.
>

As far as I'm concerned Robert is clearly correct.  When the subject (in the
sense of the content) changes the subject (in the sense of the title) should
change.  That makes it easy to either skim over stuff I'm not interested in,
identify topics I am interested in, and construct equivalent filters if I
get either very interested in a topic or just want a particular thread to go
away.

By the way, I'm sure a few of you are getting a strong sense of deja vu from
this thread.  I think I first encountered it on either bitnet or usenet.
When the thread began the topic had more urgency, as people were often
paying more money more directly for the volume of words they were getting.
In this modern era of cheap bandwidth, fast delete response, ease of setting
up free mailing lists, and wonderful filters available for every mail client
in wide use, I think it basically just an excuse to banter. I'm not talking
about the original post.  It's reasonable for the manager of the list to set
rules for off topic conversations.  But the fact that all of us can find
such nuance in the topic indicates that we are not managing our email, or
our time, as well as we could given the wonderful linux tools we have at our
disposal  :-)

Larry


-- 
"I see design standards that don't tell you how to come up with a good
design (only how to write it down), employee evaluation standards that don't
help you build meaningful long-term relationships with staff, testing
standards that don't tell you how to invent a test that is worth running."

                                     Tom DeMarco
                                      Slack
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