Cortlandt Wilson wrote:

> > It seems we haven't even given Jeff's filters a chance to work
> > before they were ignored (hence the OT in this subject field :).
>
> I thought the most important part of the filter's idea was the
> standard pre-fixes?
> Was a list published?   If so, this would be a good time to publish
> them again.   Would you please?

If you wish to do this you can handle it via the web at:

   http://raven.utc.edu/cgi-bin/WA.EXE?SUBED1=hp3000-l

If you have never used the web interface before, you'll need to follow
the "login with your Listserv password" link at the top.  You have to
register your e-mail address and a password, Listserv will mail you a
confirmation message (to be sure you are who you say you are) with a
link to verify/activate the password.  You can then login, and there is
an option to save your login info in a cookie (if you accept them).

At the bottom is a checkbox list of topics, currently (beta test stage
folks!) they are:

   OT,Administrivia,MPE,IMAGE,SQL,WEB,JAVA,SYSMAN,COBOL,POSIX,CS

and the ubiquitous "Other" which gives you all posts *without* a proper
keyword.

While the success/failure of the new topics is way too early to tell, if
you simply don't want identified off-topic posts in your mailbox, just
uncheck the "OT" topic, and presto, no more "OT:" prefixed posts.
If you don't wish to bother with the web interface, simply send a
message to <[log in to unmask]> with the text:

   set hp3000-l topics -OT

But until we decide if the topics option is a "good thing" or not, I
wouldn't advise that you remove the "Other" topic.  Turning off
everything but COBOL, for example, doesn't mean you'll get only COBOL
posts.  You'll only get the properly identified ones.  So until we get
used to the topics idea, and you post messages with topics in the
subject, all unidentified items will only go to "Other".

One of these days I'll get around to a "formal" explanation of topics
and procedures and so forth, but right now I have way too many irons in
the fire and a temporarily typing-challenged right hand to make that a
reality.  But...

As noted above, just disabling the "OT:" topic should greatly reduce
your off-topic volume as fortunately, most "really off-topic" postings
are identified as such, particularly by those of us that often wirt,
umm, I mean want to post them :-)

Jeff Kell <[log in to unmask]>