How To Reduce Junk E-Mail

From: Ryan Rossman <rossm_ry@catseq.catlin.edu>

The 3 keys to reducing "junk" email.

Accurate Subject headings.
If you send it to the whole list, make sure it applies to the whole list.
Be substantial, ask yourself am I contributing to the list or detracting?

Subject Lines:

One way to make it easier to get to the meaty information you want is to have *accurate* subject lines. If the subject line of your post says Re: Proposed Strategies and you are talking about something completely different, or are branching off from this discussion create a new subject heading. Example:

Instead of just Re: Proposed Strategies which doesn't really tell anyone what the content of the message is about. Try...

Discussion of CD Tactics (was Re: Proposed Strategies)

This is very helpful, in discovering and only reading the posts you want to read.

Personal Posts:

Short, one or two line posts that only make a personal statement torwards one or two people should be done in private. The main goal is to respect other members of the group enough so as to not post something that they are just going to have delete.

There are two ways to avoid problems with being personal.

If all you really want to do is make a short 1 or 2 line personal rseponse to someone don't send it to the entire list just send it to that person.
If you are making personal comments make sure that there is also something substantial that is pertinent to everyone included in the post.

Basically if it doesn't have something that applies to the whole list, don't post it to the whole list.

Please don't hestiate to be controversial or disagree with others, this is called freedom of speech and its why a revolution was waged, but do NOT use drctalk-l for excessive personal banter. If it has substance

with a little banter, I don't think we have a problem. Meaning that you can say nice "Amens!" and "Way to go!" **IF** you also include something a little bit more meaningful. If there is no substance and a lot of banter you probably shouldn't have sent it to the whole list. This includes the 1 or 2 line personal notes.

If we still have a problem with "junk" posts and the traffic volume is still too high there are more stringent measures that can be imposed.

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