to the list owner(s)

[Derek Broughton]

Billie Erin Walsh wrote:

> Probably going to make a few enemies.

Well, yes, since you've essentially told me I have a sick mind because I
think this is a bad idea, even though I don't do most of what you say:

> Feel they _HAVE_ to keep _EVERY_ e-mail they've ever received.

In fact, almost all of my computer lists these days are retrieved from gmane
via nntp - which means automatic expiry.

> Feel they _HAVE_ to neatly pigeon hole _EVERY_ e-mail into it's nice
> neat little box.

Well, yes.  That's not anal (I _know_ anal).  It's just a darn simple way to
ensure that I recognize the source of email without somebody having to
clutter the subjects with unnecessary redundancy.  Most of my mail folders
are actually empty - I don't keep anything in them if I've read it.  Only
my "inbox" - unfiled mail - every really grows.

> Feel they _HAVE_ to thread all their e-mail.

Look, it's fine with me if you don't care, but it's insulting to suggest
that trying to organize threads so that you can effectively respond to
users with questions is a Bad Thing.  This is certainly a case of the shoe
fitting, because I have complained about people breaking threads.  Given
that I was also recently taken to task for responding to a thread that was
already resolved, would you care to explain to me how I could _possibly_
know that if the resolution might be somewhere on the list that isn't part
of the original thread (actually, this is a pretty common occurrence - I
often see people start new threads with old subjects and "SOLVED".  Worse,
they occasionally change the subject so much that you can't really tell
what was solved.)

> Clutter up their online e-mail in-box with all the stuff they download
> and filling up their ISP's e-mail server with all the old mail they have
> already downloaded and read.

My ISP has NONE, ZIP, NADA of my email for more than a few minutes at a
time.  I wouldn't trust them with it.

> Some people DO: [ GASP ]
> 
> Download their e-mail from the server and delete off the server.
> Read the e-mail that comes in AND:
>     Keep the bits and pieces that they feel important.

Actually, I don't keep _any_ of it - I know I can always find it again on
google, gmane, nabble, marc, ...

>     Respond to what they feel they must.

And that's just gratuitous, because of course we _all_ respond to what we
feel we must...

> Read their mail online from their ISP deleting as they go.

Excuse me?  There are still _many_ Ubuntu user for whom webmail is a
practical impossibility, even if they could stand the mostly-pathetic user
interfaces.

> [ I know this may be hard for some to believe but they do ]

Sure, that doesn't make them any better than the rest of us.
> 
> Of the hundred or so e-mail lists I'm on there are only two or three
> that don't identify in the subject line. Not identifying is NOT "The
> Standard". Identifying seems to be more standard than not.

Sorry, but you're either not differentiating between computer lists and
gardening lists, or you're just making up statistics, because I guarantee
that for every computer-related list you want to name that does this, I can
name one that doesn't.  And as I stated elsewhere, it's pretty well
guaranteed that any list that does do it is administered by someone who
doesn't understand why it's unnecessary.

> Now IF someone could give the OP a _REAL_, non-personal opinion,
> non-emotional, answer to her question it might be nice.

Like THIS wasn't emotional?  People told her they don't like it, why, and
why it isn't necessary, and _you_ started insulting them instead of
responding rationally.
> 
> GEEZ, just jump on a person for asking a simple question.

I didn't see that. I saw a lot of people saying they don't like it, why, and
why it isn't necessary.
-- 
derek