Re: DISCUSS: Reading the Mail

[Robert J Welenc <rjwelenc@erols.com>]

>From: Corun MacAnndra <corun@access.digex.net>
>Subject: Re: DISCUSS: Reading the Mail
>To: rjwelenc@erols.com (Robert J Welenc)
>Date: Tue, 4 Jun 1996 08:07:41 -0400 (EDT)
>
>Alanna wrote:
>> 
>>         Will someone please explain, step by step and in simple
>> non-computerese words, just what it is you have to do to receive, sort, and
>> read the e-mail on what another poster called 'a dumb mail reader'?
>
>First of all, let's get terminology straight. You don't have a mail server.
>Your email site does. You have a workstation that has some sort of email
>software on it or otherwise available to it. This is the same for everyone
>here. Email software varies, in some cases radically. For example, I use
>two different readers depending on whether I log onto my shell account from
>work or my PPP account from home. On the shell account I'm on Unix and use
>a mail reader called elm. At home I use Eudora Light. Both are very different
>from one another and each has features the other may not have, or have in
>a different fashion. Some mail readers have the ability to filter mail based
>on a wide range of paramters like subject header. Some mail readers can only
>sort mail. Others are completely low end and can do nothing beyond getting
>you a list of mail and letting you read, save or delete it.
>
>The main thing I've seen in this overall discussion is a debate between
>those who have high end mail readers and a those who don't. IMO we should
>gear the list towards the lowest common denominator. Not everyone here is
>a geek (like me) who has access to the latest and greatest stuff with all
>the bells and whistles.
>
>The other thing we need to keep in mind during this and any other debate
>that will come up in the future is Courtesy. We *must* maintain a constant
>air of Courtesy towards one another. It is one of the three Prime Tenets
>upon which the SCA is built, the other two being Honour and Chivalry. This
>is something we need to constantly be aware of even during the course of
>normal posting (and boy does the definition of normal cover a wide range
>in this group ;-).
>
>As for a solution to the situation we have of what constitutes appropriate
>subject matter; I don't have an easy answer, and I suspect there isn't
>one. The list can't be all things to all people in its present form. I will
>state categorically, however, that making it a newsgroup is the worst way
>for us to go. I've been on newsgroups that are only for the kinds of things
>like virtual bars (alt.callahans comes to mind), but I unsubscribed because
>of the incredibly high bandwidth. It was fun, but unproductive. The other
>end of the spectrum seems to be the Rialto. Low signal, high noise. There
>is also the problem of spams and unwanted posters who troll for flamewars
>or crosspost to a hundred unrelated newsgroups. And don't get me started
>on the moderation issue. It doesn't work....period.
>
>The suggestions I've seen for subject header prefacing are about the best
>ones to date. Splitting the list will only add to the workload of those
>who are maintaining the list for us, and we have to ask ourselves if it
>is fair to do that to them. They've been gracious in setting this list up
>at all for us, let's not tax them with demands. This is a volunteer
>organization afterall.
>
>Personally, a little frivolity is fun from time to time amidst all the
>passing of SCA related information and medaeval research information. It
>helps to break things up (and not just the crockery). So I guess I can
>only leave you with a quote from a former college professor of mine, "All
>things in moderation, including moderation."
>
>Let's be tolerant and respectful of one another, and mindful of the needs
>of one another at the same time.
>
>In service,
>Corun
>
>-- 
>===============================================================================
>   Corun MacAnndra   |  Can not run out of time. There is infinite time. You
> Dark Horde by birth |  are finite. Zathras is finite. This....is wrong tool.
>   Moritu by choice  |                                        -- Zathras
>
>
Bob, Lucinda and Tabby Welenc
<rjwelenc@pop.erols.com>
(410) 969-8303

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