[R] Please begin a new subject if your post isn't a response to a previous one

Patrick Connolly p.connolly at hortresearch.co.nz
Mon Jan 27 22:14:03 CET 2003


Most mornings, I have over a screenful of messages mostly from R-help
and it's very useful to have them threaded.  However, the usefulness
of threading is lost when posters reply to a message and then change
the subject instead of creating a new message.

People who don't have a mail client that can display email in threads
are probably unaware that this sort of thing can happen in ones that do:


    37 N   25 Jan Luis Silva              ( 34) [R] plot/screen
    38 N   25 Jan Uwe Ligges              ( 55) `-> 
    39 N   25 Jan Fernando Henrique Ferra ( 20) [R] Plotting coloured histograms
->  40 N   26 Jan Mohamed A. Kerasha      ( 12) |->[R] Distributions.
    41 N   26 Jan ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk   ( 26) | |->
    42     26 Jan Qin Xin                 (  9) | `->[R] how could I add legends
    43     27 Jan Ko-Kang Kevin Wang      ( 31) |   `->
    44 N   26 Jan Remigijus Lapinskas     ( 32) |->Re: [R] Plotting coloured his
    45 N   26 Jan Damon Wischik           (125) `-> 
    46 N   25 Jan Rex_Bryan at urscorp.com   ( 10) [R] plotting primatives, ellipse
    47 N   25 Jan Uwe Ligges              ( 19) `->   


As Martin Maechler explained a month or so ago, it also screws up the
archives for a similar reason.

This is a request to anyone who starts a new subject to begin with a
new message and NOT reply to an existing one.  If your mail client is
any good, it's very simple to set up an alias (mine is simply 'r') so
that the tedious task of typing 'r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch' is
unnecessary and it's quicker than scrolling through an address book.
It's also quicker than deleting the previous subject.

Your cooperation will be greatly appreciated.

best

-- 
Patrick Connolly
HortResearch
Mt Albert
Auckland
New Zealand 
Ph: +64-9 815 4200 x 7188
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I have the world`s largest collection of seashells. I keep it on all
the beaches of the world ... Perhaps you`ve seen it.  ---Steven Wright 
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