Re: [tlug] [RFC] Proposed method for TAGGING subjects

[Scott Robbins <scottro@example.com>]

On Thu, Aug 09, 2007 at 01:56:25PM +0900, emiddleton@example.com wrote:
> Josh Glover wrote:
> >>
> >> [type tag][level tag] the current subject line with embedded [category tags]
> >>     
> >
> > Did you see my email on this?
> 
> Which one, the one where you denied that lack of time was a reason for
> experts drifting away from TLUG, and demanded I find proof, or the one
> where you 'have thought about it a lot' but given no analysis or
> reasoning or even comment on what has been said just decreed that it
> should be policy to reject tagging in email subject lines.  

For proof, check the archives.  Josh was here and so was I.  One reason
many experts drifted away was because of moderately silly threads like
this one.  It's the bikeshed thing.  (I don't feel like finding the
link, for those who don't know the meaning of the bikeshed comparison,
go to http://www.freebsd.org, find the FAQ and go to the misc section.)

Yes, I am certain, and if you check the archives and find the time when
a bunch of people left, you will see that tagging subject lines wouldn't
have kept them. 

Useless subject lines are one thing, however, tlug members tend to put
meaningful subject lines (until something drifts off topic.)

As someone has said, I'm (not that I'm an expert, though sometimes I can
help with FreeBSD or Japanese input questions) not going to go through a
list of tags to figure out which one is right one, I'd probably just not
bother to post. 
> 

> > Any tagging that is to be officially encouraged will have to happen in the body of the email, save a few
> > like [SUMMARY], [C&C], etc.
> 
> Have you given equal consideration to the effectiveness of this
> approach, it would seem to be less effective and something that very few
> would be prepared to do.
> 

No, I'd be prepared to do this.  If the idea is that putting something
in square brackets will make searching easier for those who come along,
if I had something that I felt was useful, I would even take the time to
do something like [SCIM] [CUPS] [PRINTING] [HP PRINTERS] somewhere in
the body of the message. 


> Are you prepared to hold other things that *may* hurt accessibility to
> new users to the same standard.  Things like referring to firefox as ff.

Not to mention his subject line of trim, which could get tagged as spam,
at least in NYC, where it is slang for female sexual body parts. 

> 
> as is getting fresh points of view.  I really don't have a problem with
> you disagreeing about this, but it would be good if you could at least
> accept that this is an issue and think realistically about how it might
> be resolved.

I think the the majority of both old and new members stated (usually
respectfully) that it was an awkward solution,  with at least two
members, Keith and myself, saying it was too much work.  Keith's input
to this list, at least, is valuable. 


-- 

Scott Robbins

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