Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2001 14:17:46 -0400
Reply-To: Derek Drew <derekdrew@RCN.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Derek Drew <derekdrew@RCN.COM>
Subject: How To Live With Heavy List Volume--Mail Filters
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
This is my annual posting of how to be on the Vanagon/Syncro mailing lists
in such a way that it causes no burden on your time, and doesn't clutter up
you email box. It is intended to help people stay on the list who are
otherwise thinking of quitting due to the volume of emails being sent out.
There is no reason that any owner of a Vanagon should unsubscribe the list
due to the heavy list volume.
=================================
A happy relationship to the list is one in which the list can take up no
more than 10 or 15 mins of your time *per month* if do not want it to take
up more. It is also one in which you read almost *no* stupid posts. The
Vanagon list does not have to be a burden not matter how much mail it
produces.
Here are some general principals:
1. DO NOT USE DIGEST MODE. People think that digest mode saves them work
because it sticks messages in one big file that they can read. But digest
mode actually creates additional work because the messages are not bunched
by topic properly, and it is harder to scan them quickly all together.
2. MAKE A VANAGON MAILBOX. This means to use an email program such as
Eudora or Outlook that can recognize that a message is coming from the
vanagon list and the program moves all your mail into this mailbox you
create specifically for Vanagon mail. The beauty of a Vanagon mailbox is
that you never know what is in it until you are in the mood to read Vanagon
mail. The Vanagon list creates zero burden on your normal life until you
choose for it to come into your life. You identify the mail that should go
into the Vanagon mailbox as mail that has a TO: line or a CC: line
containing "vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com" or "Syncro@yahoogroups.com." You
instruct the mail program to transfer all incoming mail with one of those
attributes into your Vanagon mailbox.
3. READ YOUR MAIL INFREQUENTLY. Try not reading *any* vanagon mail for a
week or two. You can even go a month! I think two weeks is the right
number. This allows the messages to bunch up, and you can then arrange them
by subject and delete all subjects that do not interest you. (see next message)
3. WHEN READING VANAGON MAIL ARRANGE POSTS BY SUBJECT. This is vitally
important. In the commercial version of Eudora or in outlook you set it up
to look at all mail in the mailbox and you can click on the subject
heading. This makes all the messages arrange themselves by subject. You can
then select all 50 messages with the subject line, "List Vendors Suck" all
at once, very fast. Hit the delete key. Then find all messages with the
subject line "Horray For List Vendors" and hit the delete key. Then find
all messages that say, "Here is where *I* live!" and hit the delete key.
This process can take only seconds until you are left with only those
messages in which you have a current interest.
4. CREATE BOZO FILTERS. This means that if one particular list member
annoys you with silly stuff, set your mail filters to send his email
directly to the trash bin rather than to the Vanagon list email. You will
never even know they existed. If one objected to list vendors, for example,
one could send all their messages immediately to the trash. I do not do
this myself, as I consider their participation helpful and appropriate. But
the point is that it is easy to do.
5. DO *NOT* READ MESSAGES TO SCAN THEIR CONTENT. Many email programs like
Eudora and Outlook allow you to view the content of each message as an aide
to screening. I view this as a serious mistake. It is inefficient and
intolerable for people like me with time pressures. It will take you a lot
of time and you will begin to hate the list. Consider instead screening all
your mail by subject heading only. This is the most efficient way to filter
it. One other way to filter it is to decide what you are interested in, and
then have the filters robot in your email program do the work for you. For
example, if you own a diesel, for example, you could even set up a robot to
pick up all messages with the word "diesel" in them and then put these
messages into a special Vanagon List Diesel mailbox. That would become your
preferred mailbox.
6. OPTIONAL: CONSIDER CREATING YOUR OWN VANAGON ARCHIVE. I have every post
from the Vanagon list since its first day on my laptop. After messages go
in the trash, my mail filter sweeps them away and puts them in a big
mailbox named Vanagon Archive. If I wish, I can search this archive with
the search functionality in Eudora.
By the means I have discussed, I never even see messages saying "You people
are losers" because I never select out their subject headings. I am only
dimly aware of some of our more silly threads.
I would quit the list too if I were on digest, as this is a prehistoric and
very onerous method of trying to be on this list. I suggest anybody on
digest either get off digest and into a good email program as fast as they
can, or get their head examined for why they would stay on the list and
tolerate the difficulty of using a digest mode.
IF YOU USE AOL: In the past, AOL did not have good mail filtering
capabilities and accordingly, I viewed the Vanagon list as pretty much
intolerable for anyone with an AOL account. The only solution, I felt, was
to either unsubscribe from the list or switch from AOL to a regular ISP. I
still feel this way, but it possible that recent versions of the AOL
software allow you to filter messages and sort by subject. If so, then it
is OK to stay with AOL so long as you use these features. If not, then I
urge you to get off AOL as soon as possible.
This message is a revised and reposed version of a message I first sent out
in October of 1999. Many list members wrote to me at that time saying it
was valuable, so I have reposted it here for the benefit of others to see.
________________________________________________________
Derek Drew New York, NY & Washington, DC
derekdrew@rcn.com 212-580-6486
Email me for viscous couplings
'90 Syncro Westfalia...
...seen off-road at
http://users.rcn.com/derekdrew/Syncro_Madness_Area.htm
Note: most valuable Vanagon sites on the planet (for owners) are:
http://gerry.vanagon.com/cgi-bin/wa.exe?S1=vanagon
ftp://gerry.vanagon.com/pub/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Syncro
http://www.vanagon.com
http://www.syncro.org
My refrigerator article:
http://www.vanagon.com/info/articles/Refrigerator/Reefer_Madness.htm
My article that shows how to deal with insurance companies:
ftp://gerry.vanagon.com/pub/auto-insurance-madness.html
To view Wolfgang's incredibly informative wheel article
http://users.rcn.com/derekdrew/fitbigtiresonvanagon.htm
To view Tim Smith's incredibly useful gearing calculator
http://users.rcn.com/derekdrew/syncrotireandgearratios.xls
To view some 16" Trailing Arms that enable much larger tires see
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/syncro-org/files/Wheels%2C%20Tires%20%26%20Gearing/Wheel%20%26%20Tire%20Photos/16_Inch_Trailing_Arm.jpg