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Dealing with List Volume / Survey

Friends,

For those of you having problems coping with the volume on the list, I'd like to
make a few suggestions that may help.  Please excuse me if these are old hat.
(That's what the delete key is for!!)  I joined my first listservs last fall, and
now belong to about 10, covering many interests, and deal with about 400 pieces of
mail a day, of which I save perhaps 30 to 40 for at least a short while.

For each listserv you are on, create a separate folder in your inbox.  Then create
a filter, based on the "to" field, which automatically moves the mail into that
folder.  When you go to look at your mail, consider sorting it by "thread" -- that
is, the subject line.  If there are threads that you're sure are of no interest to
you, delete them unread.  (You risk missing something good if someone inserts a
new topic without changing the subject line, but if you're pressed for time,
that's your best bet.)  Another strategy that may help is to look at the size of
the post.  Short posts may tend to be "me too's," which can be deleted quickly.

Over time, you'll discover which posters on each list are particularly
knowledgeable, which ones are in zones close to yours, even which ones are dealing
with conditions similar to yours, and you'll jump to their posts first.

As I write this, I'm working from a laptop on which I haven't created folders, and
I've had some funny misguesses about the nature of various posts (I'm on an
Anglican group, a Newfie group, a couple of gardening groups -- very different,
but surprising how often subject cross groups -- armadillos appeared in gardening
and Anglican this week, for example!)

I also maintain a second set of mail folders for material I want to save.  The
gardening folder has subfolders for perennials, vegetables, annuals, shrubs&trees,
etc, with further subfolders for topics I'm particularly interested in.  Sometimes
when there has been a great deal of discussion about a particular plant that I
want to save for reference, I'll do my own cut-and-paste, pulling out the relevant
paragraphs, and compose an e-mail to send to myself, whose subject line names the
plant and which contains all the info I want to keep.  Then I'll delete all the
other posts on that subject and send the info to myself.  I file it in the
appropriate "keeping" folder.

Donna, I'm sorry if you find responses from multiple members difficult to deal
with.  Remember we are all gardeners with different conditions and different
levels of experience, and different amounts of time to read our mail.  But many
have useful information and questions to contribute, and asking a listowner to
filter that mail would hold up the process and require a great deal of his time.

I hope this helps.  I'd be interested in hearing others' strategies for dealing
with list e-mail.  If you can point me to websites with suggestions, please do.
(Send these privately, and I'll compile them and send them back to anyone who is
interested.)

I particularly appreciate this list because I don't know when I should be doing
various tasks to prepare for future seasons' bloom.  Not only would I love to see
"you should be planting x, y & z" now, but also "you should be procuring seeds &
supplies now if you mean to propagate x, y & z soon."  And of course I realize
that many of these things vary widely from zone to zone, so no single post can
cover all of us.

Duncan, thank you for all your work on this list.

Wyn


AdamsEden@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 98-07-14 09:35:31 EDT, you write:
> << I have had people unsubscribe from the mailing list because they have
>  stated it was not the format to there liking.  I have tired in the past
>  to address questions to generate threads of interest.  Even though I
>  know the answers, it keeps the mailing list alive. >>
>
> Duncan,
> I asked to be removed from the perennials list because so many people were
> commenting on the same question.  Over and over and over.  I don't know what
> to suggest to you.  It's not the format.  Is it possible to edit the replies,
> or would that be considered against someones 4th amendment rights or whatever.
> Donna Adams in Detroit.
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