X-Message-Number: 11908 Date: Sun, 6 Jun 1999 14:25:02 -0400 From: "Stephen W. Bridge" <> Subject: List splitting To Cryonet From Steve Bridge June 6, 1999 Perhaps Kevin Q.B. is away while the mice are playing, or he is waiting for a larger agreement by participants, or he is feeling like we should all go away and leave him alone after more than 10 years running this list. We await your input, Master of the List. I see two solutions. 1. Mike Perry's suggestion that all posters on certain agreed-upon subjects will begin their posts with some symbol like a colon (:). Then, I assume, those people who do NOT want those messages will notify Kevin to place them on some kind of restricted list. Some kind of software will spot the colon and remove such messages from the digest that goes to Group B. The default for everyone is the full list; some people will choose to receive less. Potential problems: a. Some posters will forget to put on colons, especially newer posters who haven't figured out the rules yet. If the main discussers of the nature of intelligence remember, though, that shouldn't be much of a problem for Perry M., et al. b. That doesn't do much for the contention that potential new cryonicists are being put off by this talk instead of answering questions about cryonics itself. c. People like Bob Ettinger and Tom Donaldson, who like to put multiple subjects and answers in one message -- many of which DO comment directly on cryonics -- will have to post a higher number of shorter messages on narrower topics. I think we can count on them to figure that out. d. Someone has to do the work to figure out how this colon might be be best used. It might be easy or it might be harder than one thinks. 2. Create a moderated sub-list, where some individual decides what should be on the "list that goes to fewer people." He or she would take the main list and cut out whatever messages did not fit the "boring message profile" that was agreed upon. This list would be sent to those people who chose the shorter version, probably a few hours later than the original list. It would probably be a good idea for this moderator to include the message number and subject of all messages being cut, in case someone in that subgroup wants to go to the CryoNet Web archives to see a message they missed. Problems: a. While less worry and work for posters, it is a LOT more work for one individual. b. Instead of the original poster deciding whether his/her message should go to everyone or to a narrower group, one individual decides for everyone. c. It's not automatic. If the moderator is on vacation, someone else has to take over or else Group B gets no messages. Steve Bridge Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=11908