On Nov 30, 2007 10:41 AM, Philip Thompson <philthathril@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > On Nov 28, 2007 9:48 AM, Daniel Brown <parasane@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > Good morning (/afternoon/evening) all; > > > > This is more or less an RFC-type email, hence the subject line. I > > would like to see your comments on this case, and maybe we can forge > > some sort of agreement or unofficial treaty or something. > > > > Oftentimes we see a user post a question to the list, with ongoing > > discussion back-and-forth on a troublesome issue, and when a solution > > is found, the subject line has an added [SOLVED] tag on it. While > > this makes sense in a forum style arena, where posts are binded > > statically in the same group, it defeats the purpose of mailing list > > archives such as Nabble and GMANE. A recent email from this morning > > illustrates the problem, as displayed presently at this page: > > http://www.nabble.com/PHP---General-f140.html > > > > The email with the subject "The PHP License" received commentary > > from both Jochem Maas and myself, and the OP (AmirBehzad Eslami) > > replied to the message, appending the [SOLVED] tag to the subject. > > This is not a serious issue in this particular matter, as it was a > > simple thank-you message out of politeness (which is greatly > > appreciated, Amir!). However, using just a single example should help > > to emphasize my point exponentially when you consider the frequency of > > occurrences we see following the [SOLVED]-appended route. > > > > On 12 September, 2007, Zbigniew Szalbot posted a message to the > > list about a segmentation fault in PHP 5.2.3. Over the next 24 > > hours-plus, exactly sixty comments passed back-and-forth on the > > thread. When a solution was found, it was posted in a separate email > > with the [SOLVED] tag added to the subject line, and two additional > > comments added to that (entirely new) thread. > > > > Why is this such a critical issue? Because if we hope not to have > > to answer the same questions over and over again, instructing people > > to properly STFW, then we should at least be contributing to proper > > archival and documentation of problems we've successfully solved. > > Using the aforementioned example, we check Google for the same > > problem: > > > > > > http://www.google.com/search?q=php+5.2.3+segmentation+fault+core+dumped > > > > Hooray! Someone else has had the exact same list of problems, and > > now I can simply go through all of the responses and it should > > (fingers crossed!) correct my issues as well. > > > > Message 58.... 59.... getting close!.... sixty-one.... WHAT?!? No > > solution? Back to Google.... only to find that each result is exactly > > the same discussion, never including the final three emails. > > > > So the summary of my proposal is as follows: > > > > 1.) An issue has been identified with the list whereby > > improper archival will likely lead to repeat questions and unnecessary > > traffic to the list. > > 2.) I propose that we discontinue the act of subject > > modification to indicate a change in status of the issue (SOLVED, > > ALSO, ANOTHER PROBLEM, etc.) unless a completely different problem is > > reached or question is asked. This will allow a step-by-step document > > (of sorts) to be created and made "searchable" on the web. > > > > > > > > Comments welcomed! > > > > -- > > Daniel P. Brown > > [office] (570-) 587-7080 Ext. 272 > > [mobile] (570-) 766-8107 > > > > I haven't checked this mail in several days. So... sorry if this thread is > "defunct". =D > > As others have mentioned, the problem is hitting "New" email. Many (Dare I > say "all"? No, no. No I won't.) email clients are smart enough to thread > emails even if the subject has changed (and I know we have discussed that > issue as well). So, hitting "reply" and adding on [SOLVED] *shouldn't* do > anything... theoretically.... to break the thread and start a new one. > > Here's the real kicker... how do we enforce your proposed suggestion(s)? As > active as this list is with new people coming regularly, the newer people > won't know these *rules*. Throwing it on the welcome message, IMO, would > only hit the people who read it.... which is probably about 5%. Oh, I have > an idea....... let's have a test! just to get on the list! You have to pass > the test to send/receive messages! > > Ok, since it's taken me 30 minutes to write this email (I keep getting > distracted), I'm quitting... Any thoughts? > > ~Philip > My thoughts were for us, the actual contributing community, to take the few seconds to do this ourselves. If someone pops in, asks a question, and gets a response that solves it, then starts a new thread with [SOLVED] in there, perhaps we could ask them to reply back to the original thread, or even copy and paste it into the original thread ourselves. I know it will take one of us a few seconds, which can mean the difference between life and death (!!!!), but in the long run, I really believe it will save a lot of grief. Of course, it would only really need to be copied back to the original thread if it was useful. If it was just a "thank you, you're brilliant, King Dan Brown, the sexiest man ever to be hatched," then I'll only copy it over for gloating purposes. -- Daniel P. Brown [office] (570-) 587-7080 Ext. 272 [mobile] (570-) 766-8107 If at first you don't succeed, stick to what you know best so that you can make enough money to pay someone else to do it for you. -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
