Re: Robin-categories


Margie Mearns writes

:I belong to a Sheltie(Shetland Sheepdog) list and the volume of mail was
:getting unmanagable so a method of identifying content of messages was
:developed. It was necessary to enter in the Subject line: SS-Category, such
:as SS-Breed, SS-Care, SS-Behavior, SS-Chat, etc. That way people could pick
:and choose what to read or delete. I would imagine something like that could
:work for the different classes and subjects. TB-seed germ, SIB-pests,etc.

These subject-line tags can be very helpful. I saw them first on a mailing
list I no longer subscribe to, and later helped institute them on another
list I participate in. I thought of making this a part of Iris-L from the
beginning, but put the idea on the shelf for awhile. At first, there
weren't enough messages to justify it, and later it seemed many members had
their hands full just trying to keep the subject line pertinent at all! I
didn't want to place an extra burden on the list members.

However, I think the time has come.

Here's the proposal.

When you start a new thread, try to use one of the following tags in the
subject line--

TB:   tall bearded
MED:  median and dwarf
AR:   aril and arilbred
SIB:  Siberian
JAP:  Japanese
LA:   Louisiana
PCN:  pacifica
SPU:  spuria
SPE:  species

REB:  rebloomer

HYB:  hybridizing
CULT: culture (as in gardening, not opera)
SHOW: showing irises
AIS:  American Iris Society issues

AD:   iris-related advertisement
HUM:  iris-related humor

CHAT: message not about irises

ADMIN: list administration issues (for use of list owner ONLY)


Thus, instead of posting a message with the subject

"how do I transplant Japanese Irises?"

the subject would be

"JAP: how do I transplant Japanese Irises?" or
"JAP: CULT: how do I transplant Japanese Irises?"

You get the idea. Participation is voluntary. Experience on other lists
suggests that at most about 50% of us will bother to do this, but even that
will help.

There are several advantages to using subject tags. One is obvious: it
makes it that much easier to tell the subject of a message at a glance.
Another is less obvious: subscribers with mail software that has a
sort/filter capability can use it to group messages according to subject
tag, making it much easier to read all the messages in one area of interest
and discard others. Finally, I hope it will encourage us each to think
about the content of the messages we post.

If you have comments on the proposal, or ideas about adding or changing
some of the subject tags, please email me OFF-LIST. I will consolidate any
good suggestions and post a final list of subject tags in a few days.

For this to work, we must all use the same tags, spelled the same way each
time. Making up variations on them will defeat the purpose, at least as far
as automatic mail-sorting is concerned. When I establish a final list of
tags, I will include them in the welcome message and ask that you each keep
the list for reference.

I hope this will improve the usefulness of Iris-L for everyone.

Happy irising, Tom.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tom Tadfor Little                   telp@Rt66.com
Iris-L list owner * USDA zone 5/6 * AIS region 23
Santa Fe, New Mexico (USA)
Telperion Productions  http://www.rt66.com/~telp/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




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