Mailing List Prefix

[Ryan Schmidt]

On May 1, 2007, at 13:16, Salvatore Domenick Desiano wrote:

> On Tue, 1 May 2007, Juan Manuel Palacios wrote:
>
>> On May 1, 2007, at 1:16 PM, Salvatore Domenick Desiano wrote:
>>
>>> Have we had the mailng list prefix argument? As my spam  
>>> increases, I find it
>>> very useful to be able to visually pick out which items are from  
>>> MacPorts.
>>> I'm sure I can write a filter to prepend it on my end, but I'm  
>>> noticing it
>>> from a number of other lists recently and I find it useful. There  
>>> is, of
>>> course, the counter argument about wasting screen real estate.  
>>> Even [MPD]
>>> and [MPU] would help.
>>
>> Why not use the "List-Id" header field (its value for this list
>> being "MacPorts project developers list
>> <macports-dev.lists.macosforge.org>") to rule based filter messages
>> sent to this list? You can create a mailbox and send all these
>> messages in there, just a suggestions (which works dandy for me!)
>
> I've considered this, but my general mail handling data flow precludes
> multiple mailboxes (at least for e-mail to a given e-mail address). If
> MP mail went to a different folder, I'd never read it. I suspect  
> this is
> the case for many people.

Well, the lists originally had a prefix, but it was removed following  
the discussion "Remove list prefix?" available here:

http://lists.macosforge.org/pipermail/macports-users/2006-September/ 
thread.html

Granted, the discussion also argued for using an abbreviated prefix  
like "[MPD]". But the List-Id header is sufficient to configure your  
mail program's filters. I  have it configured to move mail to another  
mail folder. If you don't want to do that, you can have your mail  
program do something else -- whatever options your mail program  
offers. Set the color of the message when shown in the list, for  
example. However, I recommend you use separate mail folders. It  
really is much better. Why do you think you would never read mail in  
another folder?

List prefixes are problematic for various reasons. They take up  
horizontal space in the message list, as you know. And things become  
worse when messages are cross-posted to multiple lists and then gain  
multiple prefixes.