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Managing Volume With TOPICS: Part One [Go to Part Two]

by Simeon Nevel [snevel@sonic.net]

PetBunny is a very chatty, high-volume list.

While this is explained in the Charter and is a big part of what makes PB such a closely knit community, there are a fair number of subscribers who joined the list primarily for "hard-core" bunny care information.

For some people, the high volume of Off-Topic chatter is simply annoying. For others there is a considerable cost associated with the time it takes to download dozens of non-bunny related messages. The off-topic volume is also the single most common reason people give for leaving PetBunny. In order to allow participation in the list without getting bogged down by off-topic messages, I have decided to take advantage of a feature of the listserver software called "TOPICS."

Before I explain how this works, let me make a couple of things clear:
1) The Charter is NOT being changed. Any topic you could discuss before, you can still discuss.

2) Nothing will change with respect to the messages you receive from the list unless you take specific actions to change things.

First, some definitions:

On-topic: Anything related health, behavior, diet and care of our chosen companions. Also *requesting* vibes for ailing critters.

Off-topic: Anything that is NOT bunny related. This includes Friday funnies, news of your personal life, questions about your computer, non-bunny websites, virus warnings, recipes, weather reports etc.

Bunnies chatting: Fun stuff consisting mostly of bunzles talking to one another, i.e. pawties, binkie-fests etc.

Here's how to make it work, simply "tag" off-topic messages to the list with:

"OT: " (letter Oh, letter Tee, Colon and space)

in the subject line.

Tag Bunnies Chatting messages with:

"BC: "

If you use a tag, it must be the FIRST thing in the subject line before the real subject.

This should be easy as most of you do this already. For example, the following shows the proper use of the "OT:" and "BC:" tags:

Subject: OT: I got the job!
Subject: BC: Where's the pawty?

The following examples are IMproper ways to tag off-topic messages:

Subject: Maybe OT and maybe not: Is the list working?
Subject: OT, I wanna be six again :-(
Subject: OT I've won the Lotto!

Don't worry about changing the subject on replies as the listserver is should handle any reasonable combination of reply tags.

Now for the good part...

If you want to receive messages tagged " OT: " or " BC: " do nothing.

If you wish to prevent delivery of tagged messages to your mailbox, send the words:

set petbunny topics: -OT or
set petbunny topics: -BC

in the BODY (*not* the subject) of a message to:

listserv@lsv.uky.edu

If you wish to resume delivery of tagged messages, send the words:

set petbunny topics: +OT or
set petbunny topics: +BC

to the same address.

Go to Part Two

April 11, 2003