Re: huge lists
On Wed, 21 Oct 1998 06:02:01 -0200, Lalo Martins wrote:
>No. If you get them by POP over slow PPP they're a headache.
Assumption: That I do not get them by POP over "slow" PPP.
Incorrect.
>And if by "filter" you mean automatically deleting messages that
>don't interest you, on what criteria would you make this
>decision?
Well, filter as in filtering them into seperate folders. That is 1/2 the
work right there. Here are some other tips:
Don't read digest format. Why? Because it isn't as easy to skim over
threads when they are all thrown together all hodge-podge.
Get a MUA which can, at a minimum, sort by subject and then cronological
order. One that can sort by thread, subject and then cronological (Mutt) is
ideal. Why? Because such MUAs make it simpler to delete unwanted threads.
In PMMail98 (WinNT MUA I use) two normal LMB and one shifted is all it takes
for me to nix a batch of messages. In mutt CNTL-D will delete an entire
thread (true thread or "subject" grouped thread).
That is about 80% of what is left. Personally I don't read every message
that comes through this list. I skim for subjects which interest me or which
I know I am participating in. Out of 220 messages from users/devel I read
maybe 10% a day.
As an example, in devel the problem with sysklogd -29 was hashed over. A
week later people in user started having problems. In fact, people still
are. I answered one message, skilled all the rest. Do I (or you, or anyone
else, for that matter) really need to read 5-6 cries of "Root doesn't work!"
followed by another 20-30 replies of "Downgrade sysklogd". No. Most of the
threads are like that. If I let my mail sit for an entire day and grab all
~220 messages at once it takes me no more than 5-10 minutes to skim through
the subjects and whittle it down to the maybe 3-4 threads I want to read.
I don't see how that is so "unmanagable" so I can only assume that others
are not taking as an efficient approach as I am. Unmanagable, to me, were
the newsgroups with 4-500 messages a day to skim through. Some of the
sci.space groups are prime examples.
--
Steve C. Lamb | I'm your priest, I'm your shrink, I'm your
ICQ: 5107343 | main connection to the switchboard of souls.
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