I am a member of another list and we have strict rules about preceeding each
message with some type of designator so we can choose to ignore some subjects
if we want.  Topics that are "off subject" should all have some form of
coding:  HUM for humor, CONJ for conjecture (since it is a medical list and
people sometimes conjecture about illnesses rather than offer scientific
input), RES for research, ADMIN for administrative messages to the list owner
or about viruses, etc.  Following the designator code we insist on as clear a
description as possible in as few words as possible to further sort out the
topic.  (Brevity is important since it will be truncated on the subject line
thus the most important words go first on the line with less important
later). Also, it is good to let readers know your perspective. For example,
someone ASKING for career advice might use the following subject line:
 "CAREER advice needed: registrar" so that anyone not able to offer career
advice to a budding young registrar need not open the mail. "CAREER advice
offered: Registrar" would be of interest only to those wanting to be a
Registrar, etc.  "ADMIN virus warning" would differ from "ADMIN virus
question", etc. I'm not concerend about viruses as my computer is protected
but i am willing to answer questions if I can on the subject so I would read
one message and ignore the other.

To simply enter a subject line of "Very Important" deserves not to be read.
Why say "Museum Software" without saying what kind of software or whether you
are selling, asking, telling, etc.? "Looking for a place to stay" just fits
in my subject line but tells me nothing about who what when where and
why."Place to stay? AAM" tells me you are looking for a place to stay when
you go to AAM and it fits in the subject line window.

I'll be you can squeeze those huge accession numbers written in tiny lettrs
in in white paint on the smallest decorative art or figure out how to use a
library filing systems in ten countries during grad school so you can
probably do much better at these subject headers, too.  So can I.   Another
thing. If we in the museum field make it obvious in our subject headers and
our vocabulary that we are 1/ a part of this list and 2/ posting an obviously
museum related subject, the spammers, salesmen, chain letter mailers, etc.
will send mail that sticks out like a sore thumb and can be ignored. As it is
now, so many good messages are so poorly categorized on the subject line I'm
afraid not to open them for fear of missing an important subject.
another point: some questions are very specialized and not likely to be of
great interest to others so I try to reply to the writer by returning private
email so as not to bother the rest of you with the reply.
Finally: Other lists post FAQ's weekly so as to reduce the number of "How Do
I Unsubscribe" questions, etc.

Just my thoughts
Steve Keller