[Elecraft] Maintaining Sanity with Filters

[Drew AF2Z]

It's quite easy to scan the subject lines of individual emails, sorted 
by subject in a mail reader, and instantly deleted en masse if need be, 
rather than plowing through a serial listing of random topics in a 
digest; "speed reading" or no.

Also, with the tap of a key one can save the occasional interesting post 
for future reference. Can't do that in a digest.

After all these years on the internet the only slight irritation I have 
with email lists are subject lines such as "Question" or "How about 
this", etc. I assume that when someone hasn't put any thought into the 
subject line the rest of the post will not be worth reading. Such 
non-specific topics usually get deleted without further inspection. I 
don't mind off-topic posts at all if the subject line is descriptive of 
the content. Most list traffic is "off topic" to my narrow individual 
interests.

I enjoy quickly sorting the wheat from the chaff with a good mail 
reader. It's the email equivalent of a good HF receiver. Both deal with 
retrieving information from the noisy channel. Using a mail reader 
effectively does require touch typing ability and familiarity with the 
shortcut keys. If I had to do it by mouse clicking my way through each 
individual message in turn, that would indeed be agonizing.

The only reason I read the current thread is because I thought the topic 
was referring to receiver filters, not email filters. But maybe the 
above will help.


73,
Drew
AF2Z




On 07/30/17 16:41, Dauer, Edward wrote:
> 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
>   
> 
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