How to handle OT & spam on a mail list

[koder]

On Fri, 2008-03-28 at 12:43 -0700, Joshua Zeidner wrote:
> On 27 Mar 2008 21:50:58 -0700, Dennis Kibbe <dennisk at member.fsf.org> wrote:
> > Mail clients, like Evolution & T'bird are not designed to handle mail lists where you receive a large volume of mail that can clog your inbox and which is often off topic.
> 
>   Dennis,  Herein lies the problem- the sematics of 'off topic'.  'Off
> topic' has an entirely subjective use.  For those who subscribe to
> this list to trade System Administration tips, this thread is *Off
> Topic*.

Is this a list to trade SysAdmin tips?
I understood that its purpose was to promulgate Linux, provide mutual
aid and instructions for user new and old.

Is PLUG generating such a large volume of mail that may subject Linux
mail clients to turn turtle?

Harold

> 
> >
> >  One way to get around this problem is to read the list with a newsreader like pan or gnus (Emacs). You can do this at www.gmane.org by subscribing to gmane.org.user-groups.linux.phoenix.
> 
>   There are lots of tools available for mitigating the problems you,
> and many others before you, have identified.  Blogging, Digg, Social
> Networking and many more are established methods of managing the
> problem of signal-to-noise ratios on internet based communications
> media.  While I am not really that familiar with gmane, it is hardly
> the dominant solution for this class of problems.
> 
>    What confuses the hell out of me is why have all this legal
> overhead when these usage scenarios can be enforced with technology
> rather than stipulating acceptable behavior guidelines such as you
> have just done.  I mean, this is a group for computer programmers
> right?
> 
>   "NO TOP POSTING!!!!!"
> 
>   Best,
> 
>    Joshua Zeidner
> 
>    - http://www.joshuazeidner.com/
> 
> 
> 
> >
> >  A news reader will let you easily "score" articles so those that you want to read rise to the top and those you don't want to read will either sink to the bottom or not show up at all. Articles also "expire" so that your news inbox is self-emptying. Your normal mail inbox is reserved for, well, mail.
> >
> >  You still need to subscribe to the actual list via the PLUG site if you want to post, but you can elect to receive the digest rather than individual posts and then put yourself on "vacation hold" so even that doesn't show up.
> >
> >  If you need to contact the administrator of the list that is best done thought the appropriate email address rather than posting to the list. Requests to unsubscribe and other purely admin matters are handled through this email address which is different than the one used to post or the mailman page and not by posting to the list proper.
> >
> >  Dennisk
> >  --
> >  "Free as in Freedom"
> >  Free Software Foundation
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> 
> 
> 
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