How about considering problems from alternate perspectives or problems that exist outside of your limited exposure to the software that other people use (or are we all supposed to fall into line and think in exactly the same manner and use the same software package that someone proscribes for us?) In fact, my e:mail client has an extensive filtering capability and I have many filters some of which are quite complex. The issue on my end is as a way to quickly isolate spam from legitimate and useful messages (such as come from the smartlist group) and therein has more to do with the McAfee SpamKiller program and the rude incidence of some messages coming from the smartlist group that don't actually say "to: smartlist....". This is because some e:mail clients (like Outlook), don't automatically offer the option to use the Reply-To vs. the From field, and thus replies from some clients go to the original sender rather than the list, and the sender then adds the list as a CC. Because SpamKiller only allows me to mark as a "friend" messages from an approved address, or conversely, messages "to" an address, those messages that people send a CCd message to the list get filtered into my SpamKiller eMail box, because the header contains the right information, but they are not marked as coming from a friend. Thus, as I continue to build out my anti-spam filters, I have to spend time determining if the messages that got past the filters are really good messages or spam. Having "[smartlist]" in the subject makes that process very easy. And in fact, I think this is probably the only list that I am a member of which does not include a tag in the subject field denoting the list that it comes from. Certainly it isn't because someone proscribes that it must be there, but simply because most people find it useful. Your travel may vary, but this is what I, as a member of this list, would find more useful and helpful. On Wed, 19 Feb 2003 16:24:59 -0500, Charlie Summers wrote:

At 3:09 PM -0500 2/19/03, Gyan Penrose-Kafka is rumored to have typed:

...

How about: "[smartlist]" in the subject line.

Or, how about you take a moment to read the documentation on your email client (PMMail 2000 Professional; never used it) and determine how you might filter this list and others into their own mailboxes/folders/whatever your client calls 'em. Munging a subject is an unnecessary waste of time for those of us who _do_ read the dosumentation to our clients and easily filter the mail to its own area. Filter on the X-BeenThere: header field, any of the List-*: header fields, or any of the OTHER unique fields. (See Mr. Ball's postings as to why it's a really bad idea.)

This is really easy stuff, requiring the user only to spend a few moments learning how their email client works. I'm currently using a six-year-old email client, and it handily filters; certainly more modern clients with Y2K names will do as much.

Charlie Summers

Peace, Gyan Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved. -- Osho. ���`�����`���o,,,,o���`���o���`���o,,,,o���`���o���`��� Gyan Penrose-Kafka * gyan@zenmonkey.net * ICQ # 37394131 P.O. Box 232092, Encinitas, CA 92023 USA -- tel: +760.613-4926 ���`�����`���o,,,,o���`���o���`���o,,,,o���`���o���`��� For my PGP key send a message to pgpkey@zenmonkey.net