Homebrew PCBs

Hi all,

Noting that this list runs over with such rich diversity of skills,
ideas and insights.

Alas, though, this is somewhat of a downfall when a thread goes off on a
tangent into a whole new topic, which tends to inflict some opacity on
the list when trying to use it as a knowledge base.

May I humbly suggest that people, when replying to a thread post and
taking it off its original topic, start a whole new thread with an
updated subject line?

I notice that some people are considerately changing the subject line
sometimes - this is good, but the replies end up in the old thread, so
end up getting buried in the thread tree under a completely unrelated
subject heading.

I'd like to suggest a simple method I'm sure many will appreciate:
 1. open a new message compose window, not a reply window
 2. set 'to' address to Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, and 'subject'
    to whatever
 3. click 'reply' on the post you wish to reply to
 4. copg across the needed text from the 'reply' window to
    the 'new message' window
 5. close the 'reply' window
 6. type in whatever, into the 'new message' window
 7. send

Sounds complicated, but it's only 5-10 seconds extra work, and it will
mitigate the entropy on this list and make it more useful for all.

-- 
Cheers
David

On Sat, 02 Jul 2005 18:15:12 +0200, David McNab <david@...>  
wrote:

>
> I'd like to suggest a simple method I'm sure many will appreciate:
>  1. open a new message compose window, not a reply window
>  2. ...

> Sounds complicated, but it's only 5-10 seconds extra work, and it will
> mitigate the entropy on this list and make it more useful for all.
>


That's immensly complicated.
Why not just click reply and change the subject?

Also, some mail clients (like opera M2) have a clever function, when you  
highlight some text in a mail and then click reply this text alone is  
taken into the reply, and the rest chopped away.

I will try to change the subject line more often.

What i want to add to your request is please don't change the subject to  
something unrelated with no connection to what you are replying to. If you  
are quoting relevant passages it is ok to totally change the subject but  
in many cases it is much better to include a "(was: the old topic".
The subjects get longer, but 99.9% of mail software cuts the last part if  
anything so no harm done if it can't be fully displayed in small windows.

Also, as much as i love preserving storage space,  don't cut _all_ the old  
post away, leave relevant passages or even only keywords, and ideally  
leave the line that says in reply to whom it is.


Also, i want to mention the lists are primarily for discussion, and  
archives is only a nice secondary function. So while a certain amount of  
"make it suitable for the archives" is certainly sensible it shouldn't  
impede discussion too much.


ST

Eudora has the same feature, Eudora has had that feature for years.

At 12:02 PM 7/2/2005, Stefan Trethan wrote:
>Also, some mail clients (like opera M2) have a clever function, when you
>highlight some text in a mail and then click reply this text alone is
>taken into the reply, and the rest chopped away.

Cecil Bayona
KD5NWA

'Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level then 
beat you with experience.'

Stefan Trethan wrote:
> That's immensly complicated.
> Why not just click reply and change the subject?

Because, as I said, the tangent (with most email clients incl
Moz/T'Bird) gets buried in the thread tree under a completely unrelated
subject heading.

BTW, it took me about 10 secs incl a few simple keystrokes to perform
the simple procedure I described in the original post, in this message,
which should appear at the root of its own thread tree. I've done this
as an example.

> I will try to change the subject line more often.

That'd be a good start.

> What i want to add to your request is please don't change the subject
> to something unrelated with no connection to what you are replying to.
> If you are quoting relevant passages it is ok to totally change the
> subject but in many cases it is much better to include a "(was: the
> old topic".

Agreed 100%

> The subjects get longer, but 99.9% of mail software cuts the last part
> if  anything so no harm done if it can't be fully displayed in small
> windows.

Yes.

> Also, as much as i love preserving storage space,  don't cut _all_ the
> old post away, leave relevant passages or even only keywords, and
> ideally leave the line that says in reply to whom it is.

'Tis good to have some context, yes.

> Also, i want to mention the lists are primarily for discussion, and
> archives is only a nice secondary function.

But such a vastly useful function. I've lost count of the times Google
has pointed me to a mailing list I'd not heard of, after which I've
browsed the list archives online and found what I've needed (depending
on list entropy) sooner or later.

> So while a certain amount of "make it suitable for the archives" is
> certainly sensible it shouldn't impede discussion too much.

I don't think the suggested procedure would impede things. All decent
mail clients have hotkeys to do all the required steps, and Alt-Tab to
switch between windows fills the gap. The procedure is effortless habit
for me.

-- 
Cheers
David

On Sun, 03 Jul 2005 01:33:24 +0200, David McNab <david@...>  
wrote:

>
> Because, as I said, the tangent (with most email clients incl
> Moz/T'Bird) gets buried in the thread tree under a completely unrelated
> subject heading.
> BTW, it took me about 10 secs incl a few simple keystrokes to perform
> the simple procedure I described in the original post, in this message,
> which should appear at the root of its own thread tree. I've done this
> as an example.


Sounds to me like a local software problem.
I simply don't agree filling all the fields etc. is worth the different  
placement in the thread tree.
The thread tree isn't really all that useful, use the search function.


Sorry about it, but i'm not gonna do that.


ST

Well said!

Steve Greenfield, listowner Homebrew_PCBs

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, David McNab <david@r...> wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Noting that this list runs over with such rich diversity of skills,
> ideas and insights.
> 
> Alas, though, this is somewhat of a downfall when a thread goes off 
on a
> tangent into a whole new topic, which tends to inflict some opacity 
on
> the list when trying to use it as a knowledge base.
> 
> May I humbly suggest that people, when replying to a thread post and
> taking it off its original topic, start a whole new thread with an
> updated subject line?
> 
> I notice that some people are considerately changing the subject 
line
> sometimes - this is good, but the replies end up in the old thread, 
so
> end up getting buried in the thread tree under a completely 
unrelated
> subject heading.
> 
> I'd like to suggest a simple method I'm sure many will appreciate:
>  1. open a new message compose window, not a reply window
>  2. set 'to' address to Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, and 'subject'
>     to whatever
>  3. click 'reply' on the post you wish to reply to
>  4. copg across the needed text from the 'reply' window to
>     the 'new message' window
>  5. close the 'reply' window
>  6. type in whatever, into the 'new message' window
>  7. send
> 
> Sounds complicated, but it's only 5-10 seconds extra work, and it 
will

> mitigate the entropy on this list and make it more useful for all.
> 
> -- 
> Cheers
> David