Re: Lack of prefix in public-semweb-lifesci Subject line makes it difficult to recognize origin

Hi Bob.

Thank you for your note.  There may be a tunable we can use for a custom
directive for the list.  I will check with Daigo Matsubara, who is most
conversant in our Hypermail/Smartlist configs.

We will try to get back with you as soon as we have an answer.

Simon



On Sat, 28 Jan 2006, Bob Futrelle wrote:

> This note is for Simon J. Hernandez who handles mailing lists at W3C,
> among many other things.
>
> Point being that the  points I made below resulted in about 20 emails
> in the public-semweb-lifesci@w3.org list. Many of the notes discussed
> changing settings on their email clients to allow them to distinguish
> mail from public-semweb-lifesci@w3.org from other incoming mail.  But
> a number did agree that having the list administrator set a prefix for
> the subject line would work in every single client, since they all
> show the leading portion of the subject line in their summaries.
>
> Personally, I take advantage of this option in every GNU Mailman list
> that I run at Northeastern U. for my various  classes and research
> groups. This option in Mailman is considered so important that it is
> included on the very first of the 20 list management pages, the
> General Options page.  It is explained in Mailman as follows:
>
> ---------------
> "subject_prefix (general): Prefix for subject line of list postings.
>
> This text will be prepended to subject lines of messages posted to the
> list, to distinguish mailing list messages in in mailbox summaries.
> Brevity is premium here, it's ok to shorten long mailing list names to
> something more concise, as long as it still identifies the mailing
> list."
> ---------------
>
> Essentially all the discussion of this issue in this list so far has
> focused on the client side.  I think that a number of us would like to
> see a solution from the mailing list server side, the list management
> side.  A short prefix such as [pub-sw-lifesci] sounds reasonable.  If
> such could automatically be added to all outgoing list mail then we
> would be able to identify mail from "unknown parties" who turn out to
> be people  addressing the list. Personally, in this day and age, I
> have to be suspicious of email I get from people I don't know, with
> perhaps a subject that doesn't make it clear that it's from this list.
>  A prefix would also help me make a quick decision as to whether I
> want to open the mail now or later as I scan my bulging inbox.
>
> As an example, Protege at Stanford supports four mailing lists, each
> with a brief identifier automatically prefixed to the subject line.
> I'm sure that some members of this list are on Protege lists and are
> familiar with this.
>
> The point of this mail is to bring Simon into the discussion from the
> mail server management side.
>
> For the record, here's the info I found on list admin and Simon:
>
> W3C Mailing List Administrivia
> http://www.w3.org/Mail/Request
>
> Simon J. Hernandez
> simon@w3.org
>
> http://www.w3.org/People/Simon/
>
> Thanks all,
>
>   - Bob Futrelle
>
>
> On 1/24/06, Bob Futrelle <bob.futrelle@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Most mailing lists, such as Protege and the various gnu mailman lists
> > I run, have a prefix in the subject line that gives a quick indication
> > of the origin of the mail. Without it, I get mail from people I've
> > never heard of, which is in fact being sent via
> > public-semweb-lifesci@w3.org.
> >
> > Typical subject line from Protege as seen in Eudora:
> >
> > "[protege-owl] Re: installing_build241"
> >
> > I 'umbly suggest that this would be a useful addition to this mailing list.
> >
> >  - Bob
> >
> > --
> > Robert P. Futrelle
> >     Associate Professor
> > Biological Knowledge Laboratory
> > College of Computer and Information Science
> > Northeastern University MS WVH202
> > 360 Huntington Ave.
> > Boston, MA 02115
> >
> > Office: (617)-373-4239
> > Fax:    (617)-373-5121
> > http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/futrelle
> > http://www.bionlp.org
> > http://www.diagrams.org
> > http://biologicalknowledge.com
>

-- 
Simon J. Hernandez    |    http://people.w3.org/simon/

Received on Saturday, 28 January 2006 14:53:31 UTC