At 03:35 PM 8/3/00 -0700, Bill Cole wrote:
>I'd use threadmarkers if I thought they would benefit most others. I've
>tried a couple times, about three days each time.
You might notice, they've been in rather extensive use for the past couple
days.
>Lemme ask, Michelle. For my emailer (OE) they are almost useless at the
>end of Subject. If at the front, would they help me and many others to
>handle GML email? How? For all emailers.
Not being an expert on all emailers, I can't say how they would work for
all emailers.
However, the point is that some killfiles are configurable so you can
killfile very specific things. Therefore if you never wanted to see
another genetics discussion, you'd put "G:" or ":G" in your killfile,
and anytime that showed up in a subject line, it would head for the bit
bucket automatically. Some newsreaders have what are called scorefiles,
which allows you to prioritize various messages. So "SOS:" messages would
get the highest priority, and if you only want to read exotic gerbil
questions if you have time after everything else, you'd score "E:" very
low, so it'd come last.
However, in order to make it work, you need:
1. a CONSISTENT pattern, that everyone uses THE SAME WAY!!!!!
2. a pattern that's not likely to show up in a casual usage in a subject
line, to prevent accidental mis-killing/scoring. the newsgroup i read that
also uses the system uses the pattern of "-I-" to be really clear.
>BTW -- If we can solve this about threadmarkers for EVERYONE, there's
>less need for SocialGML or other potential splinter groups. (Subject to
>GML's max of 100 messages/day.)
Well, not everyone has killfiles or scorefiles. However, even without
automatic ones, it's easy to glance through the subject headers and quickly
delete or postpone anything with a threadmarker you don't want to read.
My personal preference is to have them at the beginning, so this is easily
done by the eye.
Also, quick reminders to any newbies about the system, and always adding in
a threadmarker on a reply helps the system catch on quickly.
Michelle
Flutist
