Re: [tlug] Suggestions for splitting of mails?

[Nguyen Vu Hung <vu-hung@example.com>]

Hello,

In conclusion, we do not have to split our ML.

Gernot Hassenpflug ????????:
> Hello all,
>
> I enjoy TLUG's ML a lot, and I have mixed feelings about the last
> couple of days of posts. I appreciate that the list is populated by a
> bunch of very smart people who hold strong views on what they believe
> in.
It is hard to find a FOSS related mailing list like tlug. IMO, for a ML 
like this to survive,
slashdotted people are needed, and it is required that they are smart. 
Unfortunately,
such people are very strong opinion in any view.

People like Steve or Curt make make traffic. They make our brain working.
I keep my mount shut most of the time but I read their emails, delete 
emails that
are not of my interest. It stresses us if we try to 
read/understand/reply *all* emails in this ML :D
>  It is also clear that it is impossible for everyone to agree, nor
> do I think that is desirable. Self-discipline and strong beliefs are
> hard to balance, and the job of the list master is a thankless one.
> I'm happy to see that none of the near flame-wars  (and I admit I have
> sympathies on both sides here, and also had to hold back from replying
> in a non-linux-related manner to some things on another thread in the
> admin list) degradated into incivility, 
That is a nature of human-being. I don't want to join a flame-war though 
I think it is a thing one( me )
should do. If it was Vietnamese, I would :D.

The root of problems most of the time are outside Linux. As you are 
reading, most of thread are not
directly related to Linux, but it is related to FOSS.
> but at the same time I am
> unhappy to see them ending in warnings to some of the participants
> (and also, in a more general sense, that some people may appear
> to be getting away with throw-away remarks). Maybe there is
> no better solution, but...
>
>   
I use View->Sort->Thread View with my mail client - ThunderBird. I 
delete all threads that I want to read.
But I think one thing we should bear in mind: Keep it on topic.
> I am wondering what is the best way for a ML subscriber to handle
> this? I appreciate that getting a batch of mails on my Google account
> is not the best solution, and that people who have mail accounts to
> receive to can do splitting better. However, I don't want to split by
> topic or by author or by keyword, I would prefer the contents of the
> posts to be on-topic as far as possible (hollow laugh).
>
>   
Gmail do it quite well: all email in the same thread costs on line of 
the browser.
Other mailers has this function as well IMO.
> I wonder if it might be possible to split the ML more? 
No. The reasons are: We don't have that much traffic to split.
> I am thinking
> along the lines of an analogue to web forums, where sub-forums for
> various off-topic, ah, topics, go, and one can have sub-forums for
> flaming, trashing other OSes, political views, and so on. On the other
> hand, such topics would have no place in the on-topic sub-forums, and
> posts or threads could be moved between sub-forums as appropriate.
> Browsing the ML would probably be a lot easier too with such
> higer-level distinctions. At present, for disciplinary action, also
> there seems to be only the possibility of a warning and expulsion,
> which is a bit wide-ranging (shotgun against cockroach sort of
> approach).
I think switching ML to a forum is an idea should be considered.

The good thing about a ML is that all we need is an email address. It is 
simple but some
of us hates that.

The good thing of forums are that we can do fancy grafix with it, and more.
One of the forum I join lets me "subscribe" to any thread. By doing so, 
I receive emails
notify me that someone has posted to the thread. If tlug has 1000 email 
traffic per day, switching
to a forum is a must!

>  Furthermore, instead of temporarily suspending or killing a
> topic dead by order, moving it to OT would be another possible
> solution. If such sub-MLs were used, subscribers could possibly avoid
> getting drawn into OT arguments more, and exercise self-discipline.
> Example: poster A introduces political views into a post about a
> technical issue. Poster B replies to the technical issue, and then
> starts a thread in an OT forum on political view, quoting A's post.
> People who haven't subscribed to that forum/ML would never need to see
> it. Some rules on absolutely out of the question topics could be made,
> something that might become necessary if TLUG gets any larger and
> maybe less cohesive.
>   

I agree. Even if a thread is well quoted and on-topic but if the number 
of emails is large, it is very hard to read.
Refer to recent threads.