[uf-discuss] Mailing list debate moved & new proposal

[Bob Jonkman]

I'm a bit late, but do want to add my bit to the mailing list debate..


This is what was said about "Re: [uf-discuss] Mailing list debate [...]"

> > If people want to filter things out, or draw particular attention to a
> > thread being related to a specific proposal, using the [hCard]
> > notation (for example) works quite well in the subject field.
> 
> I concur.  Filtering features are well supported on many of the mail
> clients I've seen, and a simple filter with the convention of
> "tagging" threads with square brackets would probably work fine.

In fact, filtering is so well supported on my mail client that I've already divided the main 
microformats list into "Citation", "Currency", "geo", "Species" and "Genealogy".  My filters 
take care of parsing the messages into individual folders.  What's left over stays in my 
generic "microformats" folder.   

If the mailing list were to be split into multiple sub-lists there can always be a "master" 
list, one that is itself subscribed to all the sub-lists.  The only (minor) problem is that 
replies to a sub-list item from someone subscribed to the master list won't necessarily be seen 
on that sub-list.  This can be overcome by "Reply-to" header munging, but that'll just start 
another debate.

I'm all in favour of integrating forums and mailing lists.  A message or post is just a block 
of data to be stored in a database.  Data is entered or extracted either by e-mail or a 
browser, or a news client, or an IRC client, or a Wiki, or anything else capable of I/O.



The best part of using my mail client is that I use the interface I choose, not the interface 
chosen by the forum admin (yes, there are skinnable forums, but still not necessariy the skins 
I want to choose for myself).  And for those who need them, there's no Web page yet that works 
as well with screen readers as an e-mail client. ("A video screen is just an assistive device 
for the visually dependent" --Geoff Eden)

A related best part is that although I subscribe to many different lists, my mail client 
interface is the same for all of them.  I can treat IETF lists the same way as the microformats 
list, the same way as the OpenOffice list, the same way as the Daily Jokes list. 

Another best part is that I get all my lists in one place.  I don't have to go browsing to 
different parts of the Internets to go find them.  Yes, I've heard of RSS.  But I don't know of 
a way to reply to RSS feeds.  Same for bookmarks.

Finally, yet another best part is that the mailing lists are right here in my work environment.  
I pretty much live in my e-mail client, so I don't need to make a mental context change when 
I'm working on a mailing list.  

Of course, all these prejudices may just be because I'm an e-mail administrator, and a luddite 
to boot :-)

--Bob.


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