[thelist] [Off-Topic] How about labeling things as "off topic", instead of decreasing the amount of the signal (was: Re: Hello Everybody!)

[Volkan Özçelik]

See the subject.

regarding:

>  it can become an even
more pointed issue if subscribers suddenly see random chat appearing
in their inboxes which has nothing to do with the list topic.

Back in old days, we used to do that too.

Changing the subject will create a new thread in almost all mail clients
(when you configure them correctly.

Format:

* $NewSubject (was: $OldSubject) => for non-off-topic posts.
* [Off-Topic] $NewSubject (was: $OldSubject) => for kinda sorta
to-the-point posts.

Examples:

* [Off topic] What a game (Real Madrid - Barcelona!) (Was: Re: 5-1
Barcelona did some pretty cool $#!% here)
* Opinions on Transpilers and Build Tools (was: I cannot understand why we
need grunt at all)

And we also used to delete any unnecessary text from the body (as in this
email) to keep things concise.
(many email clients attach the rest of the thread to the bottom of the mail
body, which makes things harder to follow)

I believe there’s too little flame on the wood, and splitting it to further
channels will kill the fire.

That’s just 2c from a fellow engineer with an MBA whose (human-readable
form of) thesis subject was Social Media and Marketing ;)

Cheers,

Volkan.