"OT" Summary 3-17-03 to 3-23-03

[Bill Ballard]

At 5:06 AM -0500 3/19/03, David Skolnik wrote:
>I'm trying an experiment, over the next few days: I'm separating the 
>day's list mail into TECHNICAL and NON-TECHNICAL mailboxes. (I use 
>Eudora).  Then I can see the proportion of each, and it gives me an 
>idea of what such lists as I just described would look like.

How did this work out, Davey? Do I gather you're doing this sorting 
into mailboxes manually?

At 9:36 AM -0500 3/26/03, David Skolnik wrote:
>  If there appears to be some consensus, then a OT list, paralleling 
>PIANOTECH,  as I described last week, might be a very viable option, 
>yet, even on such a list, I suspect there would still be the need to 
>establish protocols, to prevent it from deteriorating into chaos, or 
>being usurped by the more articulate or prolific subscribers.

Why not just use a filter to do this. Make a folder called "OT". Set 
up a compound filter which says send anything to the folder "OT" 
which has both "Pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org>" in the Reply-to field 
AND "OT: " in the Subject field.

At 5:31 PM +0200 3/20/03, Brian Lawson wrote:
>Hi, if you have a filter for OT it catches posts with subjects that have the
>words "pianOTech" "nOTification" "anOTher" "nOT" "bOTtom" "mOTion"  etc. of
>which there have been several in the last few weeks.

It can avoid the false positives by making the string "OT: ". (The 
colon-space will avoid all these everyday appearances of an "o" next 
to a "t". "If for some unimaginable reason , "OT: " traps too many 
false positives, list members could change to designation to ":O:T: 
". How many times is that going to occurs in common usage? The list 
just has to agree that this is going to be the marker for an 
off-topic post.

Such a filter would avoid the extra work on Andy's part of a parallel 
PTech "OT" mailing list, and also allow those who wanted such a 
separate list to set it up for themselves without forcing that choice 
on the rest of the list.

Filters are real easy to do. For each person who feels unable to set 
up their own filters, there would probably be two or three on the 
list, using the same email client software, who can help them through 
it. Heck, the Davester and I are both easy Eudora.

Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.

"Trust me, you've got all the equipment, You just need to read the manual"
     ...........Reese Witherspoon in "Legally Blonde"
+++++++++++++++++++++