I'm a bit late, but do want to add my bit to the mailing list debate..
This is what was said about "Re: [uf-discuss] Mailing list debate [...]"
> > If people want to filter things out, or draw particular attention to a
> > thread being related to a specific proposal, using the [hCard]
> > notation (for example) works quite well in the subject field.
>
> I concur. Filtering features are well supported on many of the mail
> clients I've seen, and a simple filter with the convention of
> "tagging" threads with square brackets would probably work fine.
In fact, filtering is so well supported on my mail client that I've already
divided the main
microformats list into "Citation", "Currency", "geo", "Species" and
"Genealogy". My filters
take care of parsing the messages into individual folders. What's left over
stays in my
generic "microformats" folder.
If the mailing list were to be split into multiple sub-lists there can always
be a "master"
list, one that is itself subscribed to all the sub-lists. The only (minor)
problem is that
replies to a sub-list item from someone subscribed to the master list won't
necessarily be seen
on that sub-list. This can be overcome by "Reply-to" header munging, but
that'll just start
another debate.
I'm all in favour of integrating forums and mailing lists. A message or post
is just a block
of data to be stored in a database. Data is entered or extracted either by
e-mail or a
browser, or a news client, or an IRC client, or a Wiki, or anything else
capable of I/O.
The best part of using my mail client is that I use the interface I choose, not
the interface
chosen by the forum admin (yes, there are skinnable forums, but still not
necessariy the skins
I want to choose for myself). And for those who need them, there's no Web page
yet that works
as well with screen readers as an e-mail client. ("A video screen is just an
assistive device
for the visually dependent" --Geoff Eden)
A related best part is that although I subscribe to many different lists, my
mail client
interface is the same for all of them. I can treat IETF lists the same way as
the microformats
list, the same way as the OpenOffice list, the same way as the Daily Jokes
list.
Another best part is that I get all my lists in one place. I don't have to go
browsing to
different parts of the Internets to go find them. Yes, I've heard of RSS. But
I don't know of
a way to reply to RSS feeds. Same for bookmarks.
Finally, yet another best part is that the mailing lists are right here in my
work environment.
I pretty much live in my e-mail client, so I don't need to make a mental
context change when
I'm working on a mailing list.
Of course, all these prejudices may just be because I'm an e-mail
administrator, and a luddite
to boot :-)
--Bob.
-- -- -- --
Bob Jonkman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://sobac.com/sobac/
SOBAC Microcomputer Services Voice: +1-519-669-0388
6 James Street, Elmira ON Canada N3B 1L5 Cel: +1-519-635-9413
Networking -- Office & Business Automation -- Consulting
PGP:0xAE33E989 Fingrprnt:9FAF A6AC B567 BC10 8973 7CF0 CB27 0317
_______________________________________________
microformats-discuss mailing list
[email protected]
http://microformats.org/mailman/listinfo/microformats-discuss
