[1] From: Willard McCarty <mccarty@epas.utoronto.ca> (22)
Subject: headers & mailers
[2] From: "Jane A. Edwards" <edwards@cogsci.Berkeley.EDU> (143)
Subject: revised posting
[3] From: "James Woolley, Lafayette College" <WOOLLEYJ@lafvax.lafayette.edu>
Subject: Aesthetics of Humanist
[4] From: Mary Ellen Foley <mef@netcom.com> (8)
Subject: Re: 9.120 aesthetics of Humanist
[5] From: Nicholas Heer <heer@u.washington.edu> (31)
Subject: Re: 9.120 aesthetics of Humanist
[6] From: Gregory Bloomquist <GBLOOMQUIST@spu.stpaul.uottawa.ca> (25)
Subject: Re: 9.120 aesthetics of Humanist
-[1]-------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Willard McCarty <mccarty@epas.utoronto.ca>
To: mccarty@phoenix.Princeton.EDU
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 1995 22:38:09 -0400
Subject: headers & mailers
My thanks to several people for helpful suggestions about how to reduce the
amount of perceived irrelevance in Humanist messages. Two things have or are
happening:
1. Improvements have and are being made to the digester software, written by
Gregory Murphy (CETH, Princeton) in perl and based on an earlier design by
Michael Sperberg-McQueen.
2. The technical information WWW page for Humanist has been expanded to
include instructions on how to adjust four of the most popular mailers so as
drastically to reduce the number of lines at the beginning of each piece of
e-mail. Suggestions, corrections, and contributions to the technical page on
this or any other such matter of interest to Humanists would be very welcome
indeed. All of us on the staff of Humanist use unix and so may tend falsely
to generalise about what works on various computing systems.
The question of whether to digest at all seems to be a matter more of
editing style than anything else. It would take a very strong argument
indeed to persuade me that sending out individual messages is preferable to
intelligent (i.e. manual) digesting for Humanist.
It may seem odd to speak of aesthetics when dealing with the looks of
e-mail, but every little bit of elegance, however small, helps, no?
WM
-[2]-------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Jane A. Edwards" <edwards@cogsci.Berkeley.EDU>
To: mccarty@phoenix.Princeton.EDU
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 1995 19:23:27 -0700
Subject: headers
First I wish to say a hearty "welcome back" to Willard as editor,
and a big thank you for taking it on again, and all the best.
Regarding the header information: I hadn't noticed there was any problem.
Perhaps it's because the headers are longer on some other lists and I've just
gotten used to them. I'm appending the headers from HUMANIST and from
LINGUIST for comparison.
Best Wishes,
-Jane Edwards
--------------------- from HUMANIST:
> From owner-humanist@lists.Princeton.EDU Thu Aug 24 15:07:32 1995
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> Date: Thu, 24 Aug 1995 18:00:56 -0400 (EDT)
> Reply-To: mccarty@phoenix.Princeton.EDU
> > From: Humanist <mccarty@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
> To: Humanist Discussion Group <humanist@lists.Princeton.EDU>
> Subject: 9.120 aesthetics of Humanist
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>
> Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 9, No. 120.
> Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities (Princeton/Rutgers)
> http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/humanist.html
>
> [1] Subject: what recipients see
> From: Willard McCarty <mccarty@phoenix.princeton.edu>
> Size: 9 lines
>
> Dear Humanists:
>
> One of my colleagues at Princeton has sent me a copy of a Humanist message
> as he actually sees it. I am confounded and depressed by the amount of
> irrelevant stuff that the ordinary recipient has to wade through before
> getting to the meat of each message. The staff of Humanist is now
> considering what can be done to reduce the header to a bare minimum without
> leaving out anything vital. Meanwhile, I am informed that with some mailers
> (such as Eudora and Pegasus) you can exercise an option to see less of the
> junk. (In Eudora Light 1.5, under Fonts and Display, make sure the box
> that says "Show all headers (even ugly ones)" does not have a check in it.)
>
> Helpful suggestions from you would be welcome.
>
> WM
> Editor
>
>
---------------------FROM LINGUIST:
> From <@cmsa.Berkeley.EDU:owner-linguist@TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU> Tue Aug 22 14:39:08 1995
> Received: from CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU by cmsa.Berkeley.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R3)
> with BSMTP id 8064; Tue, 22 Aug 95 14:41:03 PDT
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> Received: from TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU by TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release
> 1.8b) with spool id 9513 for LINGUIST@TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU; Tue, 22 Aug
> 1995 16:10:09 -0500
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> V1.2a/1.8a) with BSMTP id 7601; Tue, 22 Aug 1995 16:09:21 -0500
> Received: from tam2000.tamu.edu by tamvm1.tamu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with TCP;
> Tue, 22 Aug 95 16:05:39 CDT
> Received: from tam2000.tamu.edu (linguist@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by
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> <linguist@tamvm1.tamu.edu>; Tue, 22 Aug 1995 16:05:45 -0500
> Approved-By: The Linguist List <linguist@TAM2000.TAMU.EDU>
> Message-Id: <199508222105.QAA10604@tam2000.tamu.edu>
> Date: Tue, 22 Aug 1995 16:05:44 -0500
> Reply-To: The Linguist List <linguist@tam2000.tamu.edu>
> Sender: The LINGUIST Discussion List <LINGUIST@TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU>
> From: The Linguist List <linguist@tam2000.tamu.edu>
> Subject: 6.1147, Qs: Quantitative info, Book info, Korean software for Mac
> To: Multiple recipients of list LINGUIST <LINGUIST@TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU>
> Status: RO
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> LINGUIST List: Vol-6-1147. Tue Aug 22 1995. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 96
>
> Subject: 6.1147, Qs: Quantitative info, Book info, Korean software for Mac
>
>
> Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. <aristar@tam2000.tamu.edu>
> Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. <hdry@emunix.emich.edu>
>
> Associate Editor: Ljuba Veselinova <lveselin@emunix.emich.edu>
> Assistant Editors: Ron Reck <rreck@emunix.emich.edu>
> Ann Dizdar <dizdar@tam2000.tamu.edu>
> Annemarie Valdez <avaldez@emunix.emich.edu>
>
> Software development: John H. Remmers <remmers@emunix.emich.edu>
>
> Editor for this issue: dizdar@tam2000.tamu.edu (Ann Dizdar)
> REMINDER
> [We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually
> best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is
> then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was
> instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we
> would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.]
>
> ---------------------------------Directory-----------------------------------
> 1)
> Date: Tue, 22 Aug 1995 11:46:20 +0200
> From: zancana@irst.it (Massimo Zancanaro)
> Subject: Question: quantitative information
>
> 2)
> Date: Tue, 22 Aug 1995 15:10:20 CDT
> From: KOZONOJ@gunet.georgetown.edu ("Joseph M. Kozono")
> Subject: request book information
>
> 3)
> Date: Tue, 22 Aug 1995 18:18:56 +1000
> From: S.Shin@unsw.edu.au
> Subject: Korean Software for Macintosh
>
> ---------------------------------Messages------------------------------------
> 1)
> Date: Tue, 22 Aug 1995 11:46:20 +0200
> From: zancana@irst.it (Massimo Zancanaro)
> Subject: Question: quantitative information
>
> hello,
>
> there is someone who knows where can I look for "quantitative"
> information on languages (e.g. number of words, average number of
> senses per word, etc.). I'm mostly interested in comparing italian and
> english but every kind of information you can give me will be appreciated.
> Eventually I will post a summary.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> -Massimo.
{etc.}
-[3]-------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "James Woolley, Lafayette College" <WOOLLEYJ@lafvax.lafayette.edu>
To: mccarty@phoenix.Princeton.EDU
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 1995 18:53:56 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Aesthetics of Humanist
Willard--first, welcome back. Your previous era
with Humanist was intellectually important to me, largely
due to your personal contributions, so it pleases me deeply
to have you back. Now re: aesthetics, I wouldn't have whinged
unless you brought the topic up. But you did. As you may have
noticed, some recent brief postings have had more boilerplate
(supplied by the listowner, not by the listserv!) than
content, so I do think there are some changes you might
consider:
1. Send out only one message per piece of mail. That way, the
subject line tells the reader everything he/she needs to know,
and you can cut out the letterhead and table of contents.
2. If you really feel the letterhead has to be there, put it
at the *end* of the mail.
3. Why doesn't Princeton's "up-to-date-in-Kansas-City" listserv
have the "shorthdr" option that most older listservs have?
If the user could choose to have a short header applied in
the first place, it would be so much better.
4. You could even leave off the "Dear Humanists:" line.
5. You might consider limiting the length of postings--
I feel some essay length contributions about to happen!
(I realize I'm not addressing the problem you raised, but
this is an aesthetic consideration nonetheless.) I hope
we can keep the style of Humanist crisp and vigorous, and it
contributes to crispness if one doesn't have to wade through
two screenfuls of preliminaries with each mailing.
All good wishes,
James Woolley (woolleyj@lafayette.edu)
c
-[4]-------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Mary Ellen Foley <mef@netcom.com>
To: mccarty@phoenix.Princeton.EDU
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 1995 17:10:58 -0700
Subject: Re: 9.120 aesthetics of Humanist
I do not find the header material on Humanist posts at all dismaying.
It is far more efficient for me to see a header that tells me the
following messages are about, say, jobs available at institutions in
which I am not interested so that I can delete the message unread,
then it is for me to have to wade through pages of information I
don't need, come to the bottom of the message and wonder why I bothered!
Please continue providing headers!
Thanks for running this service,
Mary Ellen Foley (mef@netcom.com)
-[5]-------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Nicholas Heer <heer@u.washington.edu>
To: Humanist <mccarty@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 1995 17:27:23 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: 9.120 aesthetics of Humanist
The Pine mailer for Unix and PC's reduces the header lines to
four. Of course, if you want to see the full header, you can do so
simply by hitting the h key.
Nicholas Heer
-[6]-------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Gregory Bloomquist <GBLOOMQUIST@spu.stpaul.uottawa.ca>
To: mccarty@phoenix.Princeton.EDU, humanist@lists.princeton.edu
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 1995 09:45:27 EDT
Subject: Re: 9.120 aesthetics of Humanist
> One of my colleagues at Princeton has sent me a copy of a Humanist message
> as he actually sees it. I am confounded and depressed by the amount of
> irrelevant stuff that the ordinary recipient has to wade through before
> getting to the meat of each message. The staff of Humanist is now
> considering what can be done to reduce the header to a bare minimum without
> leaving out anything vital. Meanwhile, I am informed that with some mailers
> (such as Eudora and Pegasus) you can exercise an option to see less of the
> junk. (In Eudora Light 1.5, under Fonts and Display, make sure the box
> that says "Show all headers (even ugly ones)" does not have a check in it.)
HUMANIST is no worse than others. You are right, though, that
PEGASUS mail strips the headers to a minimum: I see the content
headers as soon as I open up the humanist message.
Above all, do not lose the content headers that begin each
Humanist message. The listing of contents to follow allows me
to decide whether I want to read the message and included
contents or not.
Thanks for your work, Willard, as always!
Greetings!
L. GREGORY BLOOMQUIST
Saint Paul University | Universite Saint-Paul
(University of Ottawa | Universite d'Ottawa)
223 Main, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 1C4 CANADA
EMAIL: gbloomquist@spu.stpaul.uottawa.ca
gbloom@aix1.uottawa.ca
VOICE: 613-236-1393 (messages) / 613-782-3027 (direct)
FAX: 613-236-4108