Subject lines was: just a suggestion

[Christopher Chaltain]

I think it's OK to encourage people to use good posting practices, but 
in general, I leave this up to the moderators of the various lists I'm 
on. I definitely don't say anything though unless it's chronic or I 
don't think the person is aware of what they're doing. Too much list 
traffic on posting etiquette can defeat the purpose of using good 
posting etiquette in the first place, by adding a lot of off topic 
traffic itself.

The other thing I do is appeal to someone's motivation. You'll get more 
people looking at your message if you use a good subject line and don't 
hijack another thread. You can only go so far in policing someone else's 
posting habits, and it's perfectly OK to delete someone's message if 
they didn't use a good subject line, hijacked someone else's thread, 
didn't spell check or whatever. There's plenty to read on the web and 
don't let someone else's poor habits waste your time.

On 18/03/16 14:07, B. Henry wrote:
> Yes, and I generally do this when I change the topic, but occasionaly do forget.
> I also often change the subject line even when I did not change the subject myself, and even bring this up frequently enough that I sometimes worry that
> folks will get tired of me trying to correct bad posting practices.
> Please join me in this crusade so that there is more than one of us to hate...lol
> In the same vane many people start a conversation with a subject that gives little or no idea as to what is being discussed or what question is asked.
> I do delete email that does not interest me when I know I am unlikely to be able to contribute any thing useful to the conversation, and often delete
> imprecisely subjected messages.
> More often I do answer a person once or twice and give them a reminder about making good subject lines, and sometimes I just answer, but I certainly
> think spending a few seconds coming up with an explanatory subject for an email is the least one can do if they are asking for help.
>
>
>

-- 
Christopher (CJ)
chaltain at Gmail