This is way offtopic, but I''ve seen this several times recently and it''s annoying me. If you put "HOWTO" in your subject that means that you''re posting a guide on a particular topic. It doesn''t mean that you''re asking a question about "how to" do something. It''s not like it''s a crisis, but it screws up searches for real "HOWTO" guides by poisoning the results with these posts (including this one, yay). -- James
Hi James, Is there a guide for posting to the rails mailing list somewhere? I don''t recall seeing one when I signed up. I have picked up on some obvious conventions since I started reading (e.g. [ANN] or [REQ]), but would appreciate knowing what is "standard" here. Also, why does everyone put [Rails] in front of the subject? Is that to help people filter by subject instead of filtering by recipient (i.e. rails@lists.rubyonrails.org)? I forgot the [Rails] prefix on one of my posts and it didn''t get any replies. Thanks, Eden On 1/5/06, James Ludlow <jamesludlow@gmail.com > wrote:> > This is way offtopic, but I''ve seen this several times recently and > it''s annoying me. > > If you put "HOWTO" in your subject that means that you''re posting a > guide on a particular topic. It doesn''t mean that you''re asking a > question about "how to" do something. > > It''s not like it''s a crisis, but it screws up searches for real > "HOWTO" guides by poisoning the results with these posts (including > this one, yay). > > -- James > _______________________________________________ > Rails mailing list > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails >-------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://wrath.rubyonrails.org/pipermail/rails/attachments/20060105/002901ed/attachment.html
Ezra Zygmuntowicz
2006-Jan-05 18:25 UTC
[Rails] OT -- A "HOWTO" is a guide not a question.
On Jan 5, 2006, at 10:00 AM, Eden Brandeis wrote:> Hi James, > > Is there a guide for posting to the rails mailing list somewhere? > I don''t recall seeing one when I signed up. I have picked up on > some obvious conventions since I started reading (e.g. [ANN] or > [REQ]), but would appreciate knowing what is "standard" here. > > Also, why does everyone put [Rails] in front of the subject? Is > that to help people filter by subject instead of filtering by > recipient (i.e. rails@lists.rubyonrails.org)? I forgot the [Rails] > prefix on one of my posts and it didn''t get any replies. > > Thanks, > > Eden >Eden- The rails list server automatically puts the [Rails] in the subject line. You don''t need to do it yourself.> On 1/5/06, James Ludlow <jamesludlow@gmail.com > wrote:This is way > offtopic, but I''ve seen this several times recently and > it''s annoying me. > > If you put "HOWTO" in your subject that means that you''re posting a > guide on a particular topic. It doesn''t mean that you''re asking a > question about "how to" do something. > > It''s not like it''s a crisis, but it screws up searches for real > "HOWTO" guides by poisoning the results with these posts (including > this one, yay). > > -- James > _______________________________________________ > Rails mailing list > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails > > _______________________________________________ > Rails mailing list > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails-Ezra Zygmuntowicz Yakima Herald-Republic WebMaster http://yakimaherald.com 509-577-7732 ezra@yakima-herald.com
Eden Brandeis wrote:> Also, why does everyone put [Rails] in front of the subject? Is that to > help people filter by subject instead of filtering by recipient (i.e. > rails@lists.rubyonrails.org > <mailto:rails@lists.rubyonrails.org>)? I > forgot the [Rails] prefix on one of my posts and it didn''t get any replies.Hehe, this is just the prefix that is automatically added by the mailing list software. It prefixes the subject line to make it easier for the user to filter into separate folders or whatever they like. If you posted without the prefix, it will be added. You''ll never need to manually write it. Your message probably just didn''t get any replies. You could try being more descriptive in the subject line or body. (But I''ve not looked at the link). Cheers, Tom
Guilty! Sorry about that. Thanks for the info. I''ll remember that. Regards, Gerard. On Thursday 05 January 2006 19:00, Eden Brandeis tried to type something like:> Hi James, > > Is there a guide for posting to the rails mailing list somewhere? I don''t > recall seeing one when I signed up. I have picked up on some obvious > conventions since I started reading (e.g. [ANN] or [REQ]), but would > appreciate knowing what is "standard" here. > > Also, why does everyone put [Rails] in front of the subject? Is that to > help people filter by subject instead of filtering by recipient (i.e. > rails@lists.rubyonrails.org)? I forgot the [Rails] prefix on one of my > posts and it didn''t get any replies. > > Thanks, > > Eden > > On 1/5/06, James Ludlow <jamesludlow@gmail.com > wrote: > > This is way offtopic, but I''ve seen this several times recently and > > it''s annoying me. > > > > If you put "HOWTO" in your subject that means that you''re posting a > > guide on a particular topic. It doesn''t mean that you''re asking a > > question about "how to" do something. > > > > It''s not like it''s a crisis, but it screws up searches for real > > "HOWTO" guides by poisoning the results with these posts (including > > this one, yay). > > > > -- James > > _______________________________________________ > > Rails mailing list > > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org > > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails-- "Who cares if it doesn''t do anything? It was made with our new Triple-Iso-Bifurcated-Krypton-Gate-MOS process ..." My $Grtz =~ Gerard; ~ :wq!
At 11:48 AM -0600 1/5/06, James Ludlow wrote:> If you put "HOWTO" in your subject that means that you''re posting a > guide on a particular topic. It doesn''t mean that you''re asking a > question about "how to" do something.More generally, I''d like to propose the adoption of a bit of useful Ruby syntax for email Subject lines. You may recall that the names of some Ruby methods end in the sigil "?", indicating that they are asking a question. What if we were to place this sigil at the end of Subject lines, when a post is asking a question? (:-) -r -- Technical editing and writing, programming, and web development: http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/resume.html Contact information: rdm@cfcl.com, +1 650-873-7841
Strange. When I look at the rails mailing list email, my messages don''t include [Rails] when I view them from Gmail. Maybe it is showing me a copy of what I sent instead of what I should have received (being both the sender and a recipient). If you are curious, you can search for this subject line: *Dynamic Finders and Legacy Schemas *or search for messages from me. Let me know if the [Rails] bit got added to my subject line. Rich => Is that sarcasm I detect with the whole "Ruby syntax => ?" bit? Maybe we could even start using Ruby syntax in written English so that sentences that are questions end in the nifty Ruby ? operator. ;-) Eden On 1/5/06, Ezra Zygmuntowicz <ezra@yakima-herald.com> wrote:> > > On Jan 5, 2006, at 10:00 AM, Eden Brandeis wrote: > > > Hi James, > > > > Is there a guide for posting to the rails mailing list somewhere? > > I don''t recall seeing one when I signed up. I have picked up on > > some obvious conventions since I started reading (e.g. [ANN] or > > [REQ]), but would appreciate knowing what is "standard" here. > > > > Also, why does everyone put [Rails] in front of the subject? Is > > that to help people filter by subject instead of filtering by > > recipient (i.e. rails@lists.rubyonrails.org)? I forgot the [Rails] > > prefix on one of my posts and it didn''t get any replies. > > > > Thanks, > > > > Eden > > > > Eden- > > The rails list server automatically puts the [Rails] in the > subject > line. You don''t need to do it yourself. > > > On 1/5/06, James Ludlow <jamesludlow@gmail.com > wrote:This is way > > offtopic, but I''ve seen this several times recently and > > it''s annoying me. > > > > If you put "HOWTO" in your subject that means that you''re posting a > > guide on a particular topic. It doesn''t mean that you''re asking a > > question about "how to" do something. > > > > It''s not like it''s a crisis, but it screws up searches for real > > "HOWTO" guides by poisoning the results with these posts (including > > this one, yay). > > > > -- James > > _______________________________________________ > > Rails mailing list > > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org > > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Rails mailing list > > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org > > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails > > -Ezra Zygmuntowicz > Yakima Herald-Republic > WebMaster > http://yakimaherald.com > 509-577-7732 > ezra@yakima-herald.com > > > > _______________________________________________ > Rails mailing list > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails >-------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://wrath.rubyonrails.org/pipermail/rails/attachments/20060105/8bdbdae5/attachment-0001.html
On 1/5/06, Eden Brandeis <ebrandeis@gmail.com> wrote:> Strange. When I look at the rails mailing list email, my messages don''t > include [Rails] when I view them from Gmail. Maybe it is showing me a copy > of what I sent instead of what I should have received (being both the sender > and a recipient). If you are curious, you can search for this subject line:This is one of those things that I do not love about Gmail. http://gmail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6588&ctx=en:match Annoying for people using POP clients. It would make more sense to either allow this to be user configured, or to replace the sent email with the one that arrives from the list server once it comes in. -- James
At 2:27 PM -0800 1/5/06, Eden Brandeis wrote:> Maybe we could even start using Ruby syntax in written > English so that sentences that are questions end in the > nifty Ruby ? operator. ;-)Although I wouldn''t want to encourage a general adoption of Ruby syntax in English (or whatever) text, I think that the "?" and even "!" sigils could be useful... :-). -r -- Technical editing and writing, programming, and web development: http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/resume.html Contact information: rdm@cfcl.com, +1 650-873-7841
Rich Morin wrote:> At 2:27 PM -0800 1/5/06, Eden Brandeis wrote: > >>Maybe we could even start using Ruby syntax in written >>English so that sentences that are questions end in the >>nifty Ruby ? operator. ;-) > > > Although I wouldn''t want to encourage a general adoption > of Ruby syntax in English (or whatever) text, I think that > the "?" and even "!" sigils could be useful... :-). >The problem is that almost all threads here start with a question. Most people wouldn''t bother trimming off the trailing ? when answering (I know I''d forget 97% of the time), so you''d end up with ?s splattered all over the place. Not a pretty sight, as I''m sure you can imagine... -- Alex
On Thursday 05 January 2006 04:49 pm, Rich Morin wrote:> At 11:48 AM -0600 1/5/06, James Ludlow wrote: > > If you put "HOWTO" in your subject that means that you''re posting a > > guide on a particular topic. It doesn''t mean that you''re asking a > > question about "how to" do something. > > More generally, I''d like to propose the adoption of a bit of > useful Ruby syntax for email Subject lines. You may recall > that the names of some Ruby methods end in the sigil "?", > indicating that they are asking a question. What if we were > to place this sigil at the end of Subject lines, when a post > is asking a question? (:-)Not only that, personally, I''d appreciate it if the subject described the question, not the poster, and not the fact that they have a question. "Newbie has a question" has no value while skimming the 400+ rails messages per day. "How do you proxie lighthttpd through Mozilla?" describes exactly what question is being asked, and would immediately capture the attention of anyone looking for such info, or anyone willing to quickly answer the question. Personally, I tend to skim at best, or often skip, posts with the "newbie has first question" or "question about rails" type subject. SteveT Steve Litt Author: * Universal Troubleshooting Process courseware * Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful Technologist * Rapid Learning: Secret Weapon of the Successful Technologist Webmaster * Troubleshooters.Com * http://www.troubleshooters.com