On Mon, 2003-04-21 at 10:45, Tom Emerson wrote:
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On Monday 21 April 2003 11:28, paul cooke wrote:
hear hear... it would have helped enormously if they had used "[OT]" in the subject... I filter those straight into a subfolder for later perusal, and I suspect a lot of other's do likewise.
Unfortunately, you need a human-like AI to determine this because everyone seems to have a different idea as to what the "proper" tag should be:
OT OT: [OT] (OT) [at the end of the subject line -- fred miller seems to use this] Off-topic: [yes, I've seen that one used...]
Filters should take those out, I know rather a large one.
and then there is the international bent: what is "off topic" in some other language? [and therefore, what initials are they likely to use?]
This is suse-linux-e not suse-linux-ru or some such, therefore being an English mailing list this is not such a big a issue...
Of course, as has been pointed out, the HARDEST part is getting someone else to think/realize/act on the fact that what THEY are about to say really is "off topic" for the majority of messages to a given list -- people can be so proud of their posts [I know I am on occaision] that in THEIR mind the message is completely "on track" for the group...
Or if they want to make dramatic political statements, going OT may get them filtered (for the relief of many) but of course they may not want that. Always remember what Patrick Moore once said; I don't discuss religion or politics on the stage. This was with regards whether he believed in god or not :). Wonder how many people are subscribed to this list? Matt