Fwd: [Hidden-tech] Question about list topics

[Mary Malmros]

webmaster wrote:
> [snip]
> My question to Mary, and others, what basis leads you to:
>    'discard the large majority of hidden-tech messages'
> since I don't think the majority violate our rules.
>   
Well, it's been a few weeks since I emptied the trash, so let's look 
through the trash and see what I've got from hidden-tech:

    - 5 posts on backup power
    - 10 posts on best wiki software
    - 28 posts on biznik
    - 10 posts on blogs vs. newsletters
    - 6 posts on cellphone reception
    - 4 posts on collective printer
    - 7 posts on copying video to DVD
    - 6 posts on file sharing
    - 13 posts on how to sell on ebay
    - 10 posts on free web  hosting for nonprofits
    - 5 posts for a house painter
    - about half a dozen ads for office space or various goods and services
    - about a dozen announcements
    - about half a dozen job postings
    - 5 posts on international mail
    - 4 posts on PDF-to-text converters (that was mine)
    - 4 posts on Massachusetts healthcare "reform" (mine again)
    - 31  posts on music downloads
    - 16 posts about promotion/self-promotion
    - about a dozen looking for various tech- and business-related services
    - 13 posts about what kind of computer to buy
    - 4 video chat
    - about 16 for web design for the Northampton Survival Center
    - 11 posts about botnets
    - 8 posts about windows security

I started a couple of those threads, and contributed to a couple more.  
The messages cited ended up in my trash for a variety of reasons: 
because I didn't know anything/have anything to contribute; because, 
while I might have had something to contribute, I didn't consider them 
on-topic; because it was an angels-on-pin discussion that I didn't want 
to get into; because, while the actual discussion might have been 
interesting and relevant, it was hidden by a subject line that screamed 
"irrelevant!".  BTW, the "gimme info" thread that I started -- re PDF 
converters -- I only did after spending several hours doing research and 
finding myself unable to conclude from available info what product would 
actually do what I wanted.  IOW, I didn't do it lightly. 
> And a further note, you can get the day's postings as a digest so you 
> get one message per day -- personnally I prefer individual messages.
>   
You may find this paradoxical, but when I'm finding the wheat-to-chaff 
ratio to be low, I find individual messages to be easier/better than a 
digest.  I don't want to keep around a digest just for one useful bit of 
information. 
> As a side note - as for clearing your inbox - that is what filters on
> email clients are for.
>   
Hmm.  That's a bit...condescending, no?  More to the point, it's not 
really a solution.  I've been using filters for as long as they've been 
around, and I know how to filter out both subjects AND individuals that 
I don't want to read.  If a thread comes along today titled, "Searching 
for left-handed wankel rotary engine," I certainly know how to filter it 
out.  How does that help when someone starts a thread tomorrow titled, 
"Floor wax or dessert topping -- what's your opinion?" 

--
Mary Malmros            			malmros at verizon.net
	Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug