Re: Suggestion for mailing list change

["Byron C. Mayes" <bcmayes@xxxxxxxxxx>]

At 09:27 AM 12/12/2001, Peter Murray wrote:
>--On Wednesday, December 12, 2001 8:09 AM -0600 Darryl Friesen 
><Darryl.Friesen@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>Would it be possible, if list members/administrators are in agreement, to
>>change the subject of list mail to include some kind or identifying
>>prefix?
>
>It is possible to add a prefix to the subject line, but such a change has 
>other consequences.  Since the subject line is modified, this affects the 
>sorting of messages in user's mail programs and in the 'thread' version of 
>the list archives.

Is that definitely the case? In listserv (and listproc, too, I think) the 
archives are unaffected by a prepended list name as the subject prefix is 
added only to the outgoing mail. What gets added to the archive is the 
message largely as originally sent. All of the lists I run (via listserv) 
are set this way. It's possible that mailman doesn't have that option.

As for the sorting of messages in user's mail programs, that's not really 
as much of an issue as thread reading, which wouldn't be affected. Every 
message from a list would come in with the same few characters at the 
beginning, and then the full subject afterward. That will still sort 
alphabetically and thread properly. If a local colleague sent me a message 
about "Barcode readers" that would rightfully not thread with a list 
message about "Barcode readers."

The only problem would be if the list program (mailman) inserted message 
numbers with the list name (as is the case with all of those lists from 
ALA), which would of course cause all messages to sort in the order of 
being sent and completely kill any chance of threaded reading by the user.

The options of digest and mail management are good ones though you get 
neither threading nor sorting with digest, and some people are still stuck 
with unsophisticated mail readers that don't do much management (or they 
just haven't figured that out). The prefix might have some small benefit to 
some people.

Byron


-- 
  Byron C. Mayes, MLS
  Head, Library Systems and Technology Department * Temple University Libraries
  1210 W Berks Street * Philadelphia, PA 19122-6088
  bcmayes@xxxxxxxxxx * 215-204-5797 * Fax: 215-204-5201
  Listowner, BLACK-IP: The Black Information Professionals' Network
  Join at <http://listserv.temple.edu/archives/black-ip.html>