I like the ideas below very much, especially the ones about specific
subject headers.  For a while some of us began all our subject headers
MUS just to signal it was a Museum-L post, but it didn't catch on, so I
don't know if the prefixes would work here. But even having more
carefully worded subject headers would be very helpful!  I share some of
the concerns of others who have spoken up lately about staying on topic
in order to make the process of sorting through the messages of this
very active list more manageable.  I agree with their comments about not
responding to spams on the list, and forwarding virus hoaxes to their
own Internet system's operators, not to the list.

--Helen Glazer
Exhibitions Director
Goucher College, Baltimore, MD USA
[log in to unmask]

Steve Keller wrote:
>
> 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....
>
> 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....
>
> 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.