Re: Another (probable) FAQ

[Logical Language Group <lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET>]

The weakness with subject labels is twofold.

1) Some people just don't use them.  They may be lazy, or they may just
forget what the categories are.

2) Many discussions occur as threads, such that the thread may jump across
categories.  This seems to be very true on Lojban List, as almost anything
seems to have the ability to turn into a technical discussion.  You have
taken Veijo's old "TECH:
category and turned it into around 4 different categories, and TEXT: has
become two.  In all likelihood, there will be discussions that would need
4 or 5 of the categorizers as a result, given your set.

But even with Veijo's simpler set, text and text criticism turns into
technical discussion, as might beginner and advanced questions.  And the
moment you change the code, it becomes much harder to follow a thread.
So one group of people, attempting to be true to the coding scheme, will
be carefully putting codes in, while others will be lazy and leave the codes
out, and any filtering based on the codes becomes useless.

And then finally, MOST people who respond to a thread just hit "r" or its
equivalent.  Though they may be changing the subject or the nature of the
discussion, the subject line will remain the same.

I think subject line categories only work if you have clearly delimited areas
of discussion that seldom lap over into other areas, and a relatively few
number of threads that are all long lived.

lojbab