Lately, I have noticed that the "mail-IQ" has been decreasing rapidly on these lists, so a few guidelines:
1. Don't use an existing message as a "template" for a new messages, i.e. don't reply to a message unless it really is a reply to a that specific message. You should be able to create a NEW message, shouldn't you? When you "reply" to a message and then change it into a new message (but never remove the reference to the replied message from the header) you break the mail threads. 2. When you reply to a message then please "trim" the message by removing the unrelevant parts. But don't remove *everything* from the message (like one certain Plucker developer does a little too often:) It wouldn't hurt if you also put the "reply text" in the correct order, i.e. the new text should be after the text you reply to, not before. 3. No signature lines longer than 4-7 lines and the kind of legal disclaimers we see now and then telling us that we might not be allowed to read what we just received shouldn't be included at all. If your company requires these disclaimers for all external mail then get yourself a different mail address for sending mail to these lists (or at least keep the disclaimer short, i.e. 4-7 lines). 4. No HTML formatted (or other formatting for that matter) mails. 5. Use a meaningful subject. I could go on, but these are the "problems" I have seen too often. /Mike
