On 7/21/2013 11:31 AM, Ed wrote:
>
>
> Fully agree. I am guilty of not reading archives when questioning
> something. In part this is due to the difficulty and accuracy of
> finding the material I am looking for. Search parameters do not always
> find the subject I am searching for. It's quite difficult in this
> group because of the tendency of subject to change away from the Subject
> Line.
>
True -- such as Ed's reply which is discussing searching the archives,
yet the subject line is about trimming messages and Ed didn't change it.
But look at how I changed it -- now it reflects both the current topic
as well as the thread it came from.
That's always been a quandary in on-line groups ever since I started
joining them many years ago -- for people who have their e-mail client
group messages by subject, it's best for a conversation to follow its
normal course meandering here and there with the same subject line so
that all the messages line up and the thread can be followed from start
to finish.
On the other hand, failing to change the subject line with each reply
makes searching archives for a specific piece of information much harder
since the conversations do meander.
My suggestion is that when people reply we think carefully before
replying and then before hitting "Send" consider changing the subject
line as I have done for this message so that people can know what the
current reply is actually about and can also see the thread it came from.
Or not -- human conversation is typically not meant to be saved forever
and be searchable, and these threads act just like conversations and not
panel discussions of specific topics by experts.
I see nothing wrong with a new member asking questions that may already
have been answered in the archives, even though difficult to search.
Sometimes the answer has changed, such as "what's the best app to do . .
." -- new apps are always appearing and what's great today may not have
even been available six months ago, so searching the archive wouldn't help.
--
David H. Bailey
dhbailey@davidbaileymusicstudio.com
http://www.davidbaileymusicstudio.com
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