John,

I find a certain irony that you responded to a thread that was
explicitly labeled "OT".    I think that just serves to illustrate the
variable nature of what people want and/or expect from from this list.

> Please, let's try to keep the volume of off-topic stuff reasonable.

I don't think that such a request is workable.   What is "reasonable"?
To me marking my off topic threads with OT is reasonable.

> I agree with Cortlandt that a list of standard
> prefixes, while never adequate to cover all situations, would be
helpful for
> both filtering and archive searches.

Great, so I take it that you would agree to apply the standard
prefixes or topic keywords to all your email to the list?   To use a
recent example that means that to respond to the "List of patches"
thread you would change the subject line to something like
     "Re: MPE: List of patches"   or
     "Re: List of MPE patches"

- Cortlandt




> I must agree with Michael.  Sure, there are many of us who are
interested in
> debates on politics, religion, whether the moon landings were
hoaxes, etc.
> I'm also sure there are discussion areas somewhere for those topics.
This
> list is allegedly an HP3000 list.  Most of us who subscribe to this
list
> receive the postings while we are at work, and most of us have
plenty of
> work to do.  I have dropped out of the list a few times, because the
drain
> on my time was simply unmanageable.  Please, let's try to keep the
volume of
> off-topic stuff reasonable. I agree with Cortlandt that a list of
standard
> prefixes, while never adequate to cover all situations, would be
helpful for
> both filtering and archive searches.
>