On Sun, Apr 13, 2008 at 11:12:06PM -0400, James Newton wrote: > Why can you not turn off EE and OT? I'll tell you why. I'll play Devil's Advocate today. > Why? Because then you'll start to get topic creep into PIC because posters will learn that the gurus are only reading items in the [PIC] tagged group. Then you'll (and rightly so) start your police action to get those topics out of [PIC]. Posters will get frustrated and so on and so on. The heart of this particular problem is the semantic meaning of the [EE] tag. Even if by administrative fiat [EE] is declared "Everything Engineering" the fact of the matter is that for most of us, and for most reasonable folks, EE means Electrical/Electronic Engineering. It is quite eloqently stated in the post below that you responded to. Which means that lovely items such as GW simply do not semantically fit under the tag, no matter what stated meaning is given. That's what has led us here. So the bottom line as I see it is that in order for the filters to work properly, they need to match their semantic meanings. There are two workable solutions: 1) Declare that EE is Electrical/Electronic Engineering with the written charter that's stated on the PICLIST. Police it and retag topics that do not fit to OT. 2) Create another tag [OE] for "Other Engineering" as a home for Engineering/Science topics that are not EE based. There are two schools of thought about the PICLIST. The first is that it should have a narrow topic base and should be rigidly policed. The second is that it's an open social forum for a wide range of topics. Tagging and filters are supposed to be a mechanism where each group can subscribe to the content that fits them. But the tags need to fit for that to happen. Now truthfully I agree with Herbert. When you use a threaded reader, one click of the mouse or one flick of the wrist is all that's necessary to get rid of an unwanted topic. I subscribe to everything, and frankly nothing that is posted really bothers me in the least. However, I humbly offer the above suggestions as possible solutions to the problem as we move forward. BAJ > > -- > James. > > -----Original Message----- > From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of > Ken Del Greco > Sent: Sunday, April 13, 2008 09:37 > To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public. > Subject: RE: [EE] Un-subscribbling so Russell can play all he wants > > > > There are other forums suitable for proselytizing the religion of science. > > Denigrating the PICLIST into such a forum has resulted in any substantive > > PIC/microcontroller discussion to migrate to the Microchip forum. It's one > > of the reasons why I don't participate too much anymore. It's one of the > > reasons Bob has chosen to leave. > > > > Scott > > Scott summerized it perfectly. > > I've been lurking on this list for a long time. I can't believe my > first post is going to be about this subject. But I have to agree 100% > with Bob. I don't want to attack Russell personally because there's > plenty of blame to go around. But he does seem to have hijacked this > list and turned it into a personal blog. > > I can filter [OT], and I do. I'd like to not have to filter [EE] > because I enjoy RELEVANT engineering discussions as much as the next > guy. However, these days I'm getting swamped with the > pseudo-science/astronomy/global-warming stuff, which would be great if > this was a pseudo-science/astronomy/global-warming list. But > unfortunately, that's just the tip of the iceberg. The worst part is > that it gets even less relevant from there! > > You can argue all you want about the semantics of what "everything > engineering" means on the PIClist. But applying just a simple dose of > common sense should imply "everything engineering" as it applies to > PIC's (even remotely). FET questions? Yeah, sure. Manhattan style > construction? Sounds good. Connector recommendations? No problem. But > sun spots, global warming, personal nuclear reactors? Argh. > > Why can't this list stay PIC related and with engineering topics > related to PIC's? It doesn't seem too far fetched of a notion to me. I > mean, why else are people here? There are 1000's of other lists out > there to discuss all the other topics that get posted here on a > regular basis. > > I know it's not realistic to bring the PIClist back to its roots. > That's been demonstrated many times over the years. But James, at the > very least, could you create a tag like [PRE] (PIC related > engineering)? Then at least, those of us that are subscribed to this > list for PIC reasons can start enjoying it again instead of having to > wade though 70% of the junk that's posted these days. And before you > say it - no, I don't want to take your job from you. I really do > appreciate what you, Josh and others do to keep this list going. I > know it's a lot of work and a relatively thankless job. And most of us > deep down do recognize it's not easy keeping the civility here. > > But I've seen many good people leave this list over the years and it's > virtually always because the S/N ratio has dropped so much over time. > Having Bob (along with dozens of other top-notch people) leave this > list has been a great loss. Every time one of the "stars" of the list > leaves, this same issue of off-topic posting gets rehashed again. > Yeah, things might get better for a week or two, but then it's back to > its old ways. Simply enforcing a few common sense rules to bring back > the charter of the PIClist would do wonders for my sanity (and I > suspect a lot of others here). > > OK, back to lurking and waiting for the next PIC related nugget to > surface. :) > > Ken > > _________________________________________________________________ > Pack up or back up-use SkyDrive to transfer files or keep extra copies. > Learn how. > hthttp://www.windowslive.com/skydrive/overview.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Refres > h_skydrive_packup_042008 > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist