[GLLUG] Re: mailing list format was Re: soffice52

[Edward Glowacki]

Quoted from Daniel R. Kilbourne on Wed, Jan 16, 2002 at 10:23:25AM -0500:
> OK. So, to try to summarize, my suggestion is not an option? Come
> on, it is not that hard to do. Or does the person that maintains
> the list no longer read the mails?

DPK still reads the list, and there was a post from him yesterday
I think.  I'm not sure if the mailing list software can do what
you are requesting or not.  

All that aside, it all comes down to information management.  What
you're looking for is a way to handle your email (information) more
efficiently.  Adding "[GLLUG] " or other things in brackets on
every subject is one solution to the problem, but you still end up
with a single linear list of messages that you have to look at.
Filtering is another solution that is (IMHO) better, but it still
has significant drawbacks and shortcomings (like prioritizing,
keeping track of active tasks, deleting expired email, archiving).
A better solution would be to put all mail in a database and build
virtual folders that are just queries of the database (i.e. "make
a LUG folder with all messages sent to linux-user@egr.msu.edu" or
"delete all email with the subject 'daily report' that is greater
than 1 week old" or "show me all messages that are flagged as
'important' and 'active'), but databases also have the problem of
not being very conductive to full-text searches (like Google,
AltaVista, etc.).  Perhaps some kind of hybrid system that stores
email in a database and as messages arrive does a full-text index
of them which is kept external to the database (in a more efficient
format for that function).



-- 
Edward Glowacki				glowack2@msu.edu
GLLUG Peon  				http://www.gllug.org
Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality.
                -- Jules de Gaultier