Michael Blasnik wrote
> [...] I actually did not suggest different forums to split
> up Statalist into several topic areas and I don't agree with
> that idea. If there were aStatalist forum for working with MS
> Office (for example), then there would be about 2 threads per
> month and no one would ever look there, forcing people to post
> their queries into other topic areas...
...some of my favourite lists have very low traffic.
> Although Statalist traffic is fairly high I don't think it has
> reached the point of needing separate topic areas and believe that
> would make it less appealing.
We may reach that point soon IMO. Several colleagues used to subscribe but
don't bother anymore. I am introducing Stata to 4 colleagues as we speak
and none find the list appealing, too cumbersome to sort through. I
personally don't use it as often as I used to... there is a selection bias
in the views expressed on the List since we hear less and less from casual
users, and evidently never from those who unsubscribe...
> Informative subject lines are the best approach but we also know
> that there will always be a small but noticeable fraction of posts
> with poorly worded subject lines and off-topic or too basic
> questions. If only we could set up a special forum for queries
> that don't belong on Statalist and then all of those questions
> would be routed there along with the out-of-office automated
> replies, that would be worthwhile ;}
I agree that informative subject lines are the best approach. My
suggestion: why not create a set of recommended prefixes for subject lines
based on criteria, e.g.
module announcement: <modulename>
graph: -> queries having to do with graph
xt: -> panel data queries
st: -> survival data "
ts: -> time-series "
...
The aim would not be to categorize everything, but it could be helpful for
filtering emails at minimal cost. No structural change is required, folks
are free to by into the convention or not. A personal choice. Seems like
an appropriate incentive scheme. The recommended prefixes could be listed
in the Statalist FAQ.
I care more about the module announcement prefix, my main reason for using
Statalist.
Patrick Joly
P.S. an aside: could we get the majordomo to append a RE: prefix only when
none is present? This would avoid having to widen the subject column in our
mailers. This is probably more a question for Marcello.
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