Re: st: Reading Statalist efficiently

[Phil Schumm <pschumm@uchicago.edu>]

On May 3, 2006, at 8:28 AM, Campbell, Richard T. wrote:
> But Phil Schumm's message this AM refers to an email cliet "with a  
> good interface." I have used Eudora for years, and I suspect that  
> it doesn't meet Phil's requirements. But what does?

Sorry for that rather cryptic remark.  I was thinking specifically of  
the following features:

1) Filtering.  This is perhaps the most important feature, as it  
permits you to automatically direct mail from Statalist into its own,  
dedicated folder.  One of the biggest complaints people have about  
mailing lists is that they can't handle all the messages -- filtering  
solves this problem.  Unless and until you look in the folder, it's  
as though the messages from the list don't even exist.  Of course,  
it's nice if your mail client has a flexible and easy-to-use  
interface for configuring your filtering rules, but if all you're  
doing is setting up a single rule to handle the mail from Statalist,  
it's not necessary.

2) Flexible notification.  This is the one issue that (1) doesn't  
address.  Many people (perhaps even most?) have their mail client set  
to notify them immediately (via a noise and/or visual indicator) when  
new mail is received.  This can work well for personal messages, but  
when you are subscribed to a list with a lot of traffic, it can  
become a real nuisance (i.e., if you're getting interrupted with  
every new message from the list).  Being able to exclude certain mail  
(e.g., mail filtered to certain folders) from automatic notification  
is very useful.  Even better is to have a flexible notification  
mechanism that offers different levels of notification so that, for  
example, you can avoid being interrupted with new messages from  
Statalist but can still, when you want, quickly determine how many  
new (i.e., unread) messages are in your Statalist folder.

3) Threading.  Ok, so now you've got a dedicated folder which  
contains all of the mail from Statalist, and perhaps you've even been  
able to avoid being interrupted as these messages have arrived.   
Depending upon how long its been since you've last looked at the  
folder (and how busy the list has been), you may have many new  
messages to read through.  I suspect most people keep their mail  
folders sorted by date, and going through each new message in  
chronological order is a good start.  However, rather than having to  
go through each individual message, it's much more efficient if you  
can take one whole thread at a time, dismissing with a single  
keystroke (or click) an entire thread that is not of interest.

Note that there are really two issues here.  The first is the  
procedure your client uses to determine which thread a message  
belongs to, and where it falls in that thread.  There are many ways  
to do this.  The best way is to use the In-Reply-To header, but the  
problem with this is that some mail clients and commercial MTAs (read  
MS Exchange) don't always respect this.  Another way is to rely on  
the Subject header, however parsing and matching these can be  
difficult in cases (such as lists) where the subject header has been  
automatically modified.  Moreover, threading based on subject headers  
alone cannot reconstruct the hierarchical structure of a thread  
(i.e., which messages were sent in reply to which others).  Good  
algorithms use a combination of these methods, together with  
additional information.  Different mail clients offer different  
levels of sophistication (and flexibility) in threading.

The second issue concerns how your mail client's interface permits  
you to work with threads once they have been identified.  For  
example, in my client messages belonging to a single thread are  
brought together into a single item, and if I select it, I get an  
automatic summary of the entire thread (i.e., the main subject  
header, how many messages are involved, and the From, Date, and  
Subject headers of each message, in order).  This permits me to  
dispense with an entire thread in one keystroke if it is not of  
interest, while at the same time permitting me to conduct a quick  
visual check on whether all of the messages involved really belong to  
that thread.

One final remark.  In order for this to work properly, it is  
important that Statalist members do the following:

    - When starting a new thread, always use a clear and concise  
Subject header
    - Always use the "Reply" function in your mailer when responding  
to a message
    - Don't modify the Subject header when replying to a message
    - Never hit "Reply" and then start a new thread

These guidelines are, I believe, already codified in the FAQ.  By not  
following them, people risk annoying others on the list (at best) or  
having their message inadvertently ignored (at worst).

4) Searching.  If you save all Statalist messages (and even if you  
don't), being able to search through them quickly and efficiently is  
invaluable.  Many mailers (and even OSes) have made great strides in  
this area recently; in my case (under OS X), I can perform  
complicated searches of my entire Statalist folder from my Desktop  
almost instantaneously, and can save a specific query as a dynamic  
folder which is then automatically updated as new messages that meet  
the criteria arrive (e.g., I have one such dynamic folder that  
contains all postings by members of StataCorp).  Note that in many  
cases, it takes a bit of time and effort to learn how to use the  
search facilities available to you most effectively.

5) Marking.  Some time ago, someone on the list suggested that there  
be a mechanism for identifying certain postings as particularly  
"valuable" and collecting references to these in some web-accessible  
location.  The problem with this, however, is in determining which  
messages should be flagged (i.e., who will do it and what criteria  
will they use?).  Note that if your mailer has a facility for  
flagging messages (sometimes referred to as "marking" or "labeling"),  
you can construct your own personal list (which would probably be  
more useful to you than a list maintained by others).  For example,  
when reading new messages I generally flag any that are especially  
relevant to me, and then have a dynamic folder which contains all  
such flagged messages.  This serves as a kind of personal Statalist- 
based FAQ.

6) Editing.  As a consumer of Statalist, one quickly comes to  
appreciate well crafted postings.  And constructing such postings is  
much easier if your interface for editing messages is a good one.   
For example, the ability, with a single keystroke, to modify the  
level of quoting and to bring in other messages (in quoted form) can  
make it much easier to construct a well-crafted and readable  
contribution to a long or complex thread.  Facilities such as being  
able to rewrap lines, strip non-ASCII characters, etc. can also be  
helpful.  In some cases, it is even possible to construct messages  
using your primary text editor.

I hope this gives you some sense of what I was referring to.  In case  
you're interested, I used to use Eudora, which as of 2-3 years ago  
had excellent capabilities for (1) and (5) and some limited  
capabilities for (3), (4), and (6).  I currently use Apple Mail,  
which is pretty good in all of these areas, but is unfortunately only  
available if you are running OS X.  I'm afraid I don't have much (or  
any, really) experience with other mailers, but as you know, there  
are lots (both commercial and open source) to choose from.  I will  
say, however, that while it may be worth spending a little time  
taking a look at what's out there currently (and this is almost  
certainly not as objectionable as having a colonoscopy), I'd  
certainly suggest taking some time to make certain that you are  
getting all you can out of your current mail client.  It may have  
features (or ways of using those features) that you're not aware of,  
and many mail clients are extendable (e.g., via 3rd party plugins,  
your own code, or external editors).  What matters most is that you  
are comfortable with your mailer and can use it effectively to its  
fullest potential.  After all, for many of us, our mailers are our  
3rd most important application (after our text editor and Stata).


-- Phil

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