keeping threads on topic

Hi,

The communication traffic around Pharo is constantly increasing and it is harder and harder to keep up with everything that is happening.

On the one hand this is great because it shows that our project is growing healthily. On the other hand, it makes it harder for people to find the relevant thread and participate in discussions. This is problematic given that this mailing list is for discussing development issues that require specific expertise.

To address this, I kindly ask everyone to keep a thread as much as possible on the topic meant by the title of the thread.

Cheers,
Tudor

--
www.tudorgirba.com
www.feenk.com

"Value is always contextual."

On 10/23/2016 12:11 AM, Tudor Girba wrote:
I agree.

We all know frequently threads take unforeseen directions. If you are
going to take a thread in a direction not on topic with the title, then
give your email a new title appropriate with the new topic.

This helps people to better keep up with the mailing list as they can
better discern what messages are of interest to them or not. It also
helps people with particular knowledge know if messages if the message
is something they may need to respond to.

It also helps the mailing list archives be more valuable for people
searching for answers.

In addition I would like to encourage people to limit the quoted
material of the email to that which is important to or the context of
what they are replying to. So many emails are replies to long and
increasingly longer emails due to quoting of complete emails only to
make brief comments about small portion of the email.

These mailing lists are an incredibly valuable resource. They are the
first place I search to find answers. These few simple things can help
them to be cleaner and more valuable as people will more easily find
what they are looking for.

Thanks.

Jimmie Houchin

The forum has a very nice search facility

http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Developers-f1294837.html

Thanks for the information. I personally don't have a problem with the ability to search. I have the entire mailing list in a single mailbox in Thunderbird. However the problem with data and searching is how clean is the data, the quality of the metadata, and the constraints you can put on your search parameters.

If we can have smaller messages in which the message concerns the topic in the subject, and the message contains primarily the context of  the prior emails necessary for the topic. Then we are far better off in our search efforts. Our search results will be cleaner, have fewer false positives and fewer messages to wade through to find what we want.

I took a look at your link. The advanced search does offer some nice ways to constrain a search. But if the message and topic of a particular message don't match it will be a false positive. Good mailing list habits are valuable.

Thanks again for the link. I am not always at my computer with its resources. And many people would not do what I do anyway.

Jimmie Houchin

The forum has a very nice search facility 

http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Developers-f1294837.html

On Wed, 26 Oct 2016 at 06:11, Jimmie Houchin <[hidden email]> wrote:

On 10/23/2016 12:11 AM, Tudor Girba wrote:
> Hi,
>
> The communication traffic around Pharo is constantly increasing and it is harder and harder to keep up with everything that is happening.
>
> On the one hand this is great because it shows that our project is growing healthily. On the other hand, it makes it harder for people to find the relevant thread and participate in discussions. This is problematic given that this mailing list is for discussing development issues that require specific expertise.
>
> To address this, I kindly ask everyone to keep a thread as much as possible on the topic meant by the title of the thread.
>
> Cheers,
> Tudor
>
> --
> www.tudorgirba.com
> www.feenk.com
>
> "Value is always contextual."

I agree.

We all know frequently threads take unforeseen directions. If you are
going to take a thread in a direction not on topic with the title, then
give your email a new title appropriate with the new topic.

This helps people to better keep up with the mailing list as they can
better discern what messages are of interest to them or not. It also
helps people with particular knowledge know if messages if the message
is something they may need to respond to.

It also helps the mailing list archives be more valuable for people
searching for answers.

In addition I would like to encourage people to limit the quoted
material of the email to that which is important to or the context of
what they are replying to. So many emails are replies to long and
increasingly longer emails due to quoting of complete emails only to
make brief comments about small portion of the email.

These mailing lists are an incredibly valuable resource. They are the
first place I search to find answers. These few simple things can help
them to be cleaner and more valuable as people will more easily find
what they are looking for.

Thanks.

Jimmie Houchin