[Elecraft] Maintaining Sanity with Filters

[Dauer, Edward]

At one point during my time teaching law school some of my students suggested that drafting regulations when market forces are arrayed against you is like playing Whack-a-Mole.  Never having heard of it before, I looked into it.  Apparently Whack-a-Mole is generic for machines found in bars where graduate students go, in which the player whacks a plastic mole with a rubber mallet only to see another pop up from some other spot on the playing field.  I didn’t see much point in the game, then or now, other than as an outlet for educational frustration or just excess testosterone.  But the simile was apt.

Can a G-mail or any other filter really identify subjects whose name changes from time to time – notice that I changed the title of this thread by dropping just one word.  Or another example – in how many ways would I have to type title descriptions into a filter that would make it block posts that try to instruct Elecraft how to run its business?  Whack-a-Mole, indeed.   Conversely, are filters smart enough to allow through those posts that use the same name but whose contents have migrated to something actually worth reading?  My favorite example of that was an excruciatingly long thread a couple of years ago about using KX3s for communications on motorcycle club rides.  I couldn’t care less about the nominal subject – but I did learn a good deal about portable use of my KX3.   Ditto more recently for finding the right grounding point on a Chevy Silverado.  Gems of all sorts in that one.

My solution is to take the reflector not in individual e-mails but in the once or twice daily collected format, whatever that’s called, then do a quick speed-read to ID what interests me. I don’t even bother with the delete key.  For extreme cases the nudging of a human moderator usually helps a lot.  Works great.  

Maybe I am just not yet ready to trust AI to replicate my judgment.  Am I wrong in that?  After all, Whack-a-Mole is a good metaphor for the habit of being a Luddite too.

Ted, KN1CBR


    Message: 1
    Date: Sat, 29 Jul 2017 17:55:46 -0400
    From: Kevin der Kinderen <kkinderen at gmail.com>
    To: Elecraft Reflector Reflector <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
    Subject: [Elecraft] Maintaining Sanity with Gmail Filters
    Message-ID:
    	<CAFA9ujtvMzU_F035NtDTJwpiTyQ635EpbwpjCpCaifeQaOO1oA at mail.gmail.com>
    Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
    
    For those with Gmail, the only way I have found to reduce the amount of
    reflector emails that don't interest me is to set up a filter.
    
    The way I do this is to first do a search on the subject I'm no longer
    interested in: "K3S Package Discounts" for example. Then, beside the search
    field there's a little arrow you can click. The little popup has a "Create
    filter with this search" link at the bottom. Click this. The next popup
    lets you decide what to do with current and future emails that meet the
    criteria. I select mark as read and delete it. I wish it could do more with
    the emails but that's another matter. There's a Learn More link if you get
    stuck.
    
    You can filter on many other search criteria such as sender. That comes in
    very handy.
    
    It almost always works. Sometimes the subject changes a little and usually
    the digests where the subject is not changed make it through. I haven't
    found a better way but I'm open to suggestions. Unsubscribing means I lose
    out on some very relevant and otherwise interesting topics. Maybe another
    Elecraft list called Elecraft-BS or something?
    
    Hope some find this helpful. It does reduce the inane conversations that
    drag on for hours and days. You may be able to test it with the subject of
    this post. It is a perfect example.
    
    73,
    Kev K4VD