Cohousing-L Mailing List: Work / archive references / selective list reading

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

Sorry about that subject line but this message really is about 
a number of things that come together around the recent thread on "work"


On Fri, 20 Apr 2001, David Mandel dlmandel [at] pacbell.net wrote:

> After 7.5 years, I think my group has gotten a lot closer to this  type of 
> needed
> understanding, but not without our share of long discussions, arguments,
> resentments and overhauls of the work system. For specifics, I suggest that 
> the
> newer groups look through the archives of this listserve, because a lot of 
> issues
> have been raised and systems described by veteran community members.
> 
...
> Again, look in the archives for details <about Southside work system>,
> I've described them before there.

I decided to look up what David had written about Southside work system...
I used the Subject Line Search at http://nzpp.virtualave.net/coho/
(also available from link on the Cohousing-L info page whose URL is at the
bottom of every cohousing-L message...)

I first searched for 'mandel'         (without single quotes)
and found 150+ messages since 1995... I scanned for likely messages.
5 messages that had relevant subject lines were easily spotted.
The following search URL gets just them when I searched for
'mandel and "work" '  (without single quotes but with double quotes)

The "search URL" to the results with the 5 messages is:
http://nzpp.virtualave.net/coho/search.pl?string=mandel+and+%22work%22

There may be messages where David describes their work system that did not
have subject lines that I recognised as relevant.  For this reason when a
writer makes reference to messages they have written or are familiar with
in the archives, I encourage them to consider searching the archives
themselves and include URL's to the messages or a "search url" like the
one above. They are much more likely to recognise messages with less
relevant subject lines.  Also it could save multiple people the effort of
searching.

BTW: SELECTIVE READING

David Mandel happens to be one of those folks whose messages I try to
always read.  

The biggest "problem" people have with cohousing-L is finding time to read
all the useful messages.  I presume most people read selectively and
just execise the most useful command of any email program - the delete 
command - often.  (You can always find something you deleted in the
archives...)

Another way to read selectively if you are having difficulty keeping
up with your email would be to set up a bookmark to a search url.

For example if you wanted to read articles in 2001 by several folks like:
Search for:
'(mandel baxter sandelin "fred h olson") and 2001'
then bookmark the result page.  The url for this example would be (long):
http://nzpp.virtualave.net/coho/search.pl?string=%28mandel+baxter+sandelin
+%22fred+h+olson%22%29+and+2001

It will return new messages the next time you go to it if there are new
messages (you may have to reload/refresh) by these folks. Note that quotes
may be needed around coomon names to include first name etc.

Or suppose you just want to read messages on certain topics
Search for (for example)
'money work sharing conferences news'

Selective reading via custom search url bookmarks can thus be an
alternative to overflowing mailboxes and simply unsubscribing. A few other
details...  If you want to be able to post you will still want to be
subscribed but you would want to be in "nomail" mode.  Also you'd have to
remember to check the url periodically - which with wide spread shortages
of round toits you might not get around to checking the URL :) I've
pondered a list that would send out just one message a week or a month
with a reminder to check out the archives ...

Fred

--
Fred H. Olson  fholson [at] cohousing.org    Minneapolis,MN   55411
(612)588-9532  Amateur radio: WB0YQM          List manager of:
Cohousing-L and Nbhd-tc (Twin Cities Neighborhood issues list)
More info:   http://www.mtn.org/~fholson/sig-detail.htm




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