[META] Please provide the ability to tag subjects with the list name (was: [Pidgin] for list owner)

[David Woolley]

Ka-Hing Cheung wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 11:24:26AM -0400, Steve VanSlyck wrote:
>> Who is the "we" that doesn't want it to? I assume you mean the list owner?
>>
>> Why the objection?
> 
> http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/qralston/writing/tagging-harmful/

On a quick skim, this has many good points, but many of them don't seem 
to match the reality of this list.

E.g. that tagging disrupts scanning of subjects to select within the 
list.  From what I've seen typical subjects on this list are newbie 
subjects like "help", "enquiry", or even a blank line.  Even the subject 
on this thread is bad, it is really an address, and should really have 
been sent to the list owner address, not to the list.

Also, the suggestion that users should know how to use their email 
program, but most of the questions on this list are from people who have 
very limited ability to use a computer (can't tell the difference 
between the service and the client, etc., etc.) and many come from 
office email systems, where Microsoft Outlook is typically the only 
choice.  Microsoft reportedly took the view that they wouldn't implement 
non-standards track RFCs, so theyh don't support the mailing list 
specific headers, except possibly through generic filter mechanisms.



-- 
David Woolley
Emails are not formal business letters, whatever businesses may want.
RFC1855 says there should be an address here, but, in a world of spam,
that is no longer good advice, as archive address hiding may not work.