Date: Fri, 9 Feb 1996 20:36:29 -0800
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: mico@cico.com (Michael Heth)
Subject: Gen Int: A Plea for Sanity (long but worth it).
Hiya,
Been reading the list for about 3-5 weeks now and have learned a little,
have wanted to contribute aplenty and am now just about ready to bail. Why?
Just too much traffic. Although when other subscribers mentioned this some
weeks ago there were those who claimed alotta messages were good I tend to
think those folks are reading their mail while on the clock at work or are
those elusive trust fund babies we always hear about.
As for myself, I owned a 65 camper in the early 70's, sold it and regretted
it before the new owner pulled out of the driveway. Came across a 67 by
chance about 8 years ago, snapped it up and proceeded to dump another
$5,000 into it (unintentionally, I swear).
Been pining away for a '90 or '91 Westfalia the last few years and joined
the list to read up on them (was fooled completely by the term Vanagon in
the mailing list name - this is a Type II list, as the weekly stats show
that Vanagons are only 43% of the vehicles). But it's okay, I'm living
through it, it's just that the volume has me wondering how to bring about a
little order here, so I can stay with the pack.
I've been waiting to figure out some sort of hierarchy for the messages and
low and behold the weekly stats show up, (hey good job Joel). Using the
stats, I have come up with a simple coding system that will allow myself
and any others who have to work for a living the opportunity to participate
yet keep the mail maintenance chores down to a dull roar. It makes use of
the 2 level filtering ability of Eudora to filter the messages by subject
such that I can read the ones I'm interested in and #$%^#can the rest
without having to look at them individually.
Here's how it could work (assuming others on the list like the idea of
their computer doing work for them rather than creating work for them
{which it does when it allows 70-145 uncollated messages to show up each
day}).
Here are the general interest catagories
Gen Int:Elec: (Yup, anything that makes sparks) (things dragging on the
pavement don't qualify)
Gen Int:Eng: (Them motor things)
Gen Int:Hum: (Yucks aplenty)
Gen Int:Oil: (Both types, in da motor and all over everywhere)
Gen Int:Tires: (generally round, black, with a hole in the middle)
If I wanted to post a message I would choose a catagory and append my
subject after the second colon. Zeasy, try it.
If I had a post that was model specific I would use one of the following
Micro:Elec:
Micro:Eng:
Micro:Gen: (General Interest)
Micro:Oil:
Micro:Tires
or
Bus:Elec:
Bus:Eng:
Bus:Gen:
Bus:Oil:
Bus:Tires
or
Van:Elec:
Van:Eng:
Van:Gen:
Van:Oil:
Van:Tires
or
Euro:Elec:
Euro:Eng:
Euro:Gen:
Euro:Oil:
Euro:Tires
More catagories could be added of course but these might be sufficient.
There could be body, chassis, interior etc. As many as are needed to
properly describe the post. Long subject lines to interest the reader would
not be neccessary.
Then when I check for mail Eudora would filter all the Vanagon list mail
into one category and then that mail down into 25 or so categories, storing
each in a different mailbox for me. I read the catagories I'm interested in
and trash the others. As Otis said so eloquently "Walla", my traffic
nightmare comes to an end.
Do you see the one logistical problem with this system? That's right, when
you make a reply your mail program will probably add RE: before the proper
subject coding. The solution is just to delete the Re: and append it to the
end of the subject. Hey, it's reverse polish notation for text! (all HP
calculator owners please laugh now). If you think for even one moment that
this would be automatically creating a catagorized archive of general and
specific Type II field knowledge, well you're right it would. It would also
make this list the envy of other info oriented lists as opposed to chat
oriented (refraining from Grateful Dead joke at this point in time).
Ah, what's with this filter settin' up stuff, you ask. Well, I just did it
right here, right now and it took all of minutes which will be returned to
me in about 3 days of filtering.
The advantage of what I'm proposing here is that Eudora is available on
both Dos and Mac. Secondly, anyone who doesn't want to bother with either
coding their subject line for the benefit of the other subscribers or with
setting up their own filtering doesn't have to. If they don't code their
subject I just send their post into the ether via delete and all is well. I
impose on them, not and they impose on me, not. For those of us who would
like to look at personal computers as work saving devices (yeah, I know
they aren't) we can exchange information like crazy and maybe still buy the
baby some new shoes. Any mail program that can at least sort by subject
would also be sorting the posts into some semblance of order, they'd just
all still be in one mail box.
This whole idea can be modded or whatever is needed to make it work but I
don't think it needs a lot of committee type action as it's pretty
straighforward. Just implement it or implement something because at an
average of 70 posts a day it's a little over 25,000 a year and I'm not
going to wade through them manually (and I'll bet there are many others
who'll just bail without saying anything).
How to make this the law? Simple, whoever is the grand poohbah of the list
(is there someone with the big hat on?) just mail a finalized version of
the subject line coding schema to all subscribers and also mail it to all
new subscribers as time goes on. Tell 'em to do it. Tell 'em God wants them
to if they ever want to get to heaven.
Well, that's about it for me. I hope something can be done. I'd like to
participate but the traffic has me bummed. I do have somethings of iterest
to contribute (As I JUST KNOW others who have bailed have also had). For
the last 19 years I've kept 2 Norton Commandos running and the things I
learned about those can be directly applied to all aircooled motors (does
your motor run hotter or cooler in cold weather, does it run hotter or
cooler at high altitude?).
I hope this isn't all too wacky for the list, I've been online since 1984
(yup, started with Compuserve @ 300 baud) but this is the first mailing
list I've subscribed to. Scuttlebutt I'd heard prior to subscribing, "man
don't join one of those, it'l just fill your mailbox up with tons of
messages". Now, who'da thought scuttlebutt would prove true.
My stats. 1995 all email (personal and business) about 600 messages
1996 Vanagon list alone (3 weeks) well over 600.
Best.
M./
