signal-to-noise (was:RE: Help me to configure XF86Config for TV- out)

[Vanco, Don]

Mike A. Harris wrote:
> On Wed, 29 Oct 2003, Elton Woo wrote:
> 
>> On October 29, 2003 11:01 am, Vanco, Don , <"Vanco, Don"
>> <don.vanco at agilysys.com>> wrote:
>>> Alor wrote:
>>>> Help me to configure XF86Config for display video on TV using
>>>> tv-out 
>> 
>>> This list
>>> getting WAY too many support and OT threads going to keep up with
>>> it...  I can appreciate the desire to get TV out working - but this
>>> list should not be the first place you stop to learn how to do so...
>> 
>> Quite true. You have a very valid point.
>> 
>>> 	I really wanna help with the Fedora stuff - but damn, 200 emails a
>>> day is really excessive when the signal-to-noise ratio starts to
>>> drop like 
>> 
>> Might I suggest the following:
>> 1) Set your mailer to thread messages, that way you can simply skip
>> over subjects which don't interest you.
	A valid suggestion - sadly my mail is handled via an Exchange
network and I am forced to use Outlook during business hours (when I do most
of my beta activity) - so there's no nice threading option for me.......

>> 2) A better solution: get the list in digest form.
	Been there, tried that - there's still a considerable investment in
time to look over the contents and try and determine what I need to look at
on my system and what is static....  For a time the list (or the
aforementioned MS email cr at p) was a bit psychotic in it's decision to send
the digest as an attached "gang" of individual emails or as a true text
digest...  opening nested emails just to check their validity is a PITA I'm
not willing to endure...

>> Hopefully, this latter method will save both your time and the
>> stress on your nerves!
	Don't get me wrong, I would not care if there were 200 posts a day
on actual bug identification / resolution - it's just that the focus of this
list is, at time, non-existent...  I've been guilty at points in the past
myself....

> Personally, the volume of these lists is way too high for me, and
> the S/N ratio is pretty bad.  Many have commented both on-list,
> in IRC, and in private discussions similarly.  Most people either
> skim subject lines, or just gang-delete mail I think unless they
> see something that interests them jump out.
	..and this is my major issue.  I resort to gang deletion, and then I
run the risk of looking like a moron because I post for a known issue or
only have a portion of a thread archived for reference....

> I use pine's threading (H) to view threads, then scan through
> them looking for XFree86/X or X related subjects and generally
> ignore almost all other emails myself.  I'd like to set up a mail
> filter that searches the subject/body for certain keywords and
> filters the mails to folders for me while ignoring the bulk of the
> lists. 
> 
> Evolution's vfolders feature aparently is perfect for this,
> although I use pine myself.  I might start using Evolution in the
> future, just for mailing lists alone, and use pine for regular mail. 
	Sadly, our corporate policy precludes me from using Linux (yet we
sell a ton of it - go figure).  Basically - I'm stuck looking at every email
be it in single delivery form or digest.  When I'm on dial-up (and it's slow
in Hooterville) the volume of local processing the Exchange/Outlook combo
does can make for some long sessions trying to help Fedora.

	Sure, I've only filed 3 bugs against Fedora - but only one of them
was NOT unique....  I hope that things settle down here after this first
release....
Don