RE: st: Correct Way to Respond to Posts when Email is Turned Off

["Ben Hoen" <bhoen@lbl.gov>]

I humbly wonder if possibly a new heading could be created in the FAQ?

The current "2.2 How do I send questions to Statalist?" includes the
following text:

".Note: if you get the statalist-digest version of Statalist, you should
still post your questions to statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu. 

If you are replying to a posting, your mailer will typically produce a
sensible message title automatically (e.g., by prefixing the previous title
with "Re:"). 

However, if you are replying to a daily digest, put your reply in a new
posting, taking care to use the same title as the specific posting you are
replying to. Replying to the digest itself (even if you edit out all
irrelevant content and change the title) causes archiving software to
receive irrelevant information about what you are replying to. 

In addition, please do not start a new thread by replying to a previous
posting. Again, even if you delete the previous posting's contents and
change its title, such practice also messes up archiving."


Possibly that text can be removed and a new heading could be created
entitled: 

How do I reply to a post?

There are two scenarios for replying to a post, one as a recipient of
statalist emails, and the second as a recipient of statalist-digest.  In
both cases, reply protocols are suggested to keep the thread trail together,
and to minimize nonsensical postings by Majordomo.  Replies follow the same
protocols are postings (e.g., ASCII or "plain text", no attachments, max 52
letters) and should be made to statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu.

As an email recipient, replying to a posting typically involves simply using
the mailer's "reply" option.  This will typically produce a sensible message
title automatically (e.g., by prefixing the previous title with "Re:"),
which will allow for the correct ordering of the post in the thread.  

As a digest recipient, any reply should be done in a new email, taking care
to include the same title as the specific posting you are replying to, and
with a "RE: " prepended (if not already included in the title).  Therefore,
if the title of the original post is "st: <thread title>" the response to
the original posting should be entitled "RE: st: <thread title>".
Alternatively, if the title of the original responded post is "RE: st:
<thread title>" the response to the that posting should also be entitled
"RE: st: <thread title>".  

Additionally, both email or digest recipients should remove all text below
the reply if possible. This will avoid the occurrences of Majordomo creating
a new post for the bottom of the email entitled "[no subject]" heading.

Finally, responses to a post that occur <fill in here - e.g., "the following
day"> might not thread correctly, but instead might show as a new post.

* this last point is really just a guess, but it does seem that replies to
posts from days earlier do not attach

Anyway, my two sense.  And, more importantly, this systems works, so these
recommendations are secondary (much lower) to the overall success of the
list.  I do not know what I would do without it.

Ben



Ben Hoen
Principal Research Associate
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Office: 845-758-1896
Cell: 718-812-7589
bhoen@lbl.gov
http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/emp/staff/hoen.html




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