ONTARIO-L Archives

Archiver > ONTARIO > 2000-07 > 0964895652


From: "Gordon A. Watts" <>
Subject: Re: From the Grouch! -- Making Subject Lines Relevant
Date: Sat, 29 Jul 2000 11:34:12 -0700


Greetings All.

I do not often respond to threads like this as they frequently end up taking
considerable list time while not really adding much to my knowledge. As I
spend about 90 percent of my time in my involvement with the Post 1901
Census campaign this is time I feel I cannot waste. I find, however, in
this case I am in complete agreement with Evelyn. Making subject lines
relevant to the body of the message is an important goal that we should all
strive to achieve. Subject lines such as HELP -- INFO REQUEST -- WHERE
IS? -- WHO? -- WHY? -- etc. do little to encourage me to read the message,
and the sender could frequently miss out on information I might have that
would be relevant to his/her search.

I find it particularly annoying to see a subject line of Re:
DIGEST.................. . We all (including myself) occasionally hit reply
when in Digest mode and forget to change the subject line but it is
something we should be attempt to be conscious of.

While on my hobby horse here <]:-) I will take the time to mention another
pet peeve of mine. That is people that receive list mail in Digest mode and
who when using REPLY include the entire digest, or an entire multi-message
thread when sending a two line response to it. I use MS Outlook Express for
my email, and while most Rootsweb Digests come through as a single message
with attachments, Netscape and some other mail lists handle Digests
differently, requiring you to scroll through each successive message to get
to the next. If several people have responded to a particular message
without "snipping" the excess it is time consuming, and annoying to have to
scroll past successive repetitive messages to get to one that might interest
me.

One more thing. PLEASE SIGN YOUR MESSAGE, if even only with a first name.
Even if I have information someone is seeking I will not respond to a
message that has no name attached to it. I hate sending a message that has
to have a salutation of DEAR ????. It is nice also to know a general area
of where the writer is located as well.

Now jumping off my hobby horse <]:-). Happy Hunting.

Gordon A. WATTS
Port Coquitlam, BC

Keep up to date on Post 1901 Census information at
http://www.globalgenealogy.com/census/index.htm
Join the CANADA CENSUS CAMPAIGN List at

Read my Post 1901 Census column in the Global Gazette
http://www.globalgenealogy.com/gazette.htm

----- Original Message -----
From: EVELYN GLENN <>
To: <>
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2000 4:49 PM
Subject: From the Grouch!


> I have noticed what looks like an increased amount
> of messages that tell you nothing!

<SNIP>

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