Re: META: subject prefixes

From: Ziana Astralos (ziana@extrotech.net)
Date: Tue Feb 26 2002 - 18:14:02 MST


On Tue, 26 February 2002, "sineo" wrote:
> [quoting the list guidelines:]
> > Posts about the list, or its rules, should have
> > the pre-fix "META:". We encourage the use of other
> > prefixes indicating the content of a post.
> > Examples include, PHIL:, MATH:, SCI:, CHAT:, etc.
>
> Is there some list of subject prefixes that should
> be obeyed on this list or I can made'em up with my
> own desire?
>
> What do you think about posting list rules once a
> week with list of such prefixes to make people use
> them? Or are they just too cramping and you don't
> won't to use them?

You can use whatever prefix seems appropriate.
Insisting on use of specific prefixes is imo far more
trouble than it's worth, and could get carried away...
as these posts from about a year ago parody:

---
From: Terry Donaghe (Terry@Donaghe.com)
Date: Tue Jan 16 2001 - 09:24:30 MST 
Subject: PREFIX: More Suggested Prefixes
IRR: for Irrelevant posts having nothing to do with 
Extropianism 
NONSEQ: for nonsequitir posts which might have 
something to do with Extropianism or might not - 
reading makes you ask, "Where the hell did that come 
from?" 
NOTGUN: for posts which have nothing to do with guns 
or firearms in general 
PRIMGUN: for extropian discussions about flint-lock 
rifles and other ancient firearms 
HURL: if you need to talk about lethal projectile 
weapons other than guns, use this prefix (Extropian 
Archery, Camel Flinging, etc) 
BIGGUN: reserved for talking about firearms ranging 
from elephant guns up to battleship weapons 
FAKEGUN: talk about faux guns here 
ONTOPIC: for discussions which are actually on topic 
RAMBLING: insane rants and raves 
POWERTOOLS: for important extropian discourses on 
powertools 
PRIVATE: talk about your privates 
X: Custom prefix - follow with no more than 3 
characters representing whatever you wish - don't 
bother to explain. 
Please use the "|" character to concatenate the 
various prefixes which will describe your post. Ex: 
IRR|NOTGUN|FAKEGUN|PRIVATE: The "Flamethrower" 
This would be an irrelevant posting which would not be 
about firearms, but would be about fake guns and 
something to do with your "privates" region. Perhaps a 
pseudo-medical story.
---
From: Joseph Sterlynne (vxs@mailandnews.com)
Date: Tue Jan 16 2001 - 11:24:01 MST 
Subject: Re: PREFIX: More Suggested Prefixes
Terry's suggested prefixes: 
    IRR NONSEQ NOTGUN PRIMGUN HURL BIGGUN FAKEGUN 
    ONTOPIC RAMBLING POWERTOOLS PRIVATE X 
> Please use the "|" character to concatenate the 
> various prefixes which will describe your post. Ex: 
> 
> IRR|NOTGUN|FAKEGUN|PRIVATE: The "Flamethrower" 
Come on. You expect people posting to mailing lists---
where you actually have to type!---to write subject 
lines like that? It would actually be something like: 
    IRR|NoTGUn /FAKEeGN|PRIVIT(sp?): The `Flamethroewr" was (was:Re:arrrgh)) 
So, anyway, if I've understood your above prefix 
suggestions then I should be able to post, say, 
    LIRR|NOGUNRI|FAKEGUM|HURD|OCTOPIC|BIGGUS|PRIVATE: Urp 
which would be about a low-ranking soldier taking the 
Long Island Railroad toward the site of a massacre in 
Korea while working on the GNU (_not_ GUN) kernel and 
looking at an eight-photograph layout of a character 
from _The Life of Brian_ after finding some plastic 
for-display-only chewing gum and eating it. 
---
From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Tue Jan 16 2001 - 13:06:24 MST 
Subject: HUMOR: More Suggested Prefixes
I just realized that a logical tree structure or path-
name would useful. This would allow the reader to 
determine which subtopic is being discussed, find the 
relationship between topics, and filter on whole 
categories. 
Thus, a flame about the recent elections could have 
the prefix of 
"POLITICS/GOVERNMENT/PROCESS/ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL/2000
/STATE/FLORIDA/BALLOT/SUBTYPE/BUTTERFLY/COMMENT/NEGATIV
E/REPLY/LONGISH:" 
What could be more user-friendly? 
---
From: Charlie Stross (charlie@antipope.org)
Date: Wed Jan 17 2001 - 09:30:22 MST 
Subject: Re: HUMOR: More Suggested Prefixes
We obviously need relative pathnames, so that we can 
signal topic drift by saying something like
../../POSITIVE/BENEFITS ("let's look on the bright 
side of this ...") or ../../FLAME/HOT/HOTTER/HOTTEST 
("your granny wears army boots and your dad smells of 
elderberries!"). 
Oh, and we need national or cultural signifiers: USA, 
NOTUSA, APPLEPIE, COMMIESUBVERSION, BELGIUM and so on.
---
From: Michael S. Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Wed Jan 17 2001 - 11:17:03 MST 
Subject: Re: HUMOR: More Suggested Prefixes
Heck, while we are at it, why don't we just set up a 
nice, well planned out news server with all the 
categories set up....
---
Thus the absence of a focus on strict adherence to 
rules about subject prefixes. ;-)
Aumentar!
Onward,
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