[Lowfer] Raining on the parade

[Ralph Hartwell]

> I don't think that's it at all. Seems the issue is over the volume of
> non-tech list posts, not necessarily an attack on "humor." As one
> commented, it may have more to do with the signal to noise ratio ( my
> terms ) of the posts.

<snip>

> Bill A.'s thought of applying a distinguishing ## to the subject tag
is
> a thought that still puts the Delete burden on the recipient. That may
> be a start, maybe even in the right direction, but it doesn't
eliminate
> the real issue: the high volume. For those with a small HD, that's a
> read concern and we may be cutting them off.

Most mail programs offer the option to just download the headers instead
of the full message. That requires less HD space.  As for the volume, I
get about 175 messages a day here, about half of which are junk.  I use
Mailwasher to sort and delete those.  The rest are dropped neatly into
various folders for reading at my leisure.

Personally, I have no problem with a dozen - or more - off topic
messages in any forum.  I can scan a message in a few seconds (big
monitor; small font; fast reader) and dump the ones that are not of
interest.  Anyhow, I often feel that I can get a sense of the other guy
or gal's personality even better in OT messages.  And, a change of pace
is oftentimes fun, anyway, and can lead to some interesting discussions.

OTOH, I can certainly understand those who wish to stay strictly on
topic because of lack of time.  But, strict topic-keeping doesn't always
work.  Case in point: I was the member of a forum relating to medicine.
Due to the complaints of some of the various participants about the
volume of OT traffic, that original forum split, and split again - and
again, eventually reaching (so far) a total of 5 - count 'em - 5
different forums!

Now I have to read through all five lists to get the info, and, to make
it worse, stuff is often identically posted to all five forums at once
just to make sure everyone gets the info!  And now most of those new
forums are beginning to be filled with the same "verboten OT stuff" that
caused the split in the first place.

Ya' can't win!!

73,

Ralph   W5JGV / WC2XSR / 13

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