Danielle,

2009/5/12 Danielle Marie <[log in to unmask]>

> Out of curiosity, what do you find useful about receiving several emails
> per
> day from Gerard, repeating his blog posts verbatim?


I try to be fairly source-agnostic. If the information is the same, it
doesn't bother me terribly whether it arrives via email or RSS. In fact, in
some ways I prefer things to arrive via email, because that way I will at
least see the headline, since I check my email frequently. Regardless of
whether bulk information arrives because I've subscribed to a mailing list
or because I've subscribed to an RSS feed, it would be unreasonable for me
to put the onus on the content provider to anticipate the minutiae of my
tastes. So, I regard subscribing to a bulk source as carrying a
responsibility to filter the feed as my tastes dictate, rather than
necessarily trying to kick particular people off the input to that feed,
even if I don't find them interesting.

I used to use <http://www.sampablokuper.com/2008/10/28/no-news-is-bad-news/>an
RSS-to-email service so that my inbox was the only place I needed to
check for updates from people I'm interested in (whether bloggers, friends,
family, colleagues), and the only place in which I needed to create filters,
but the service folded. Otherwise, I'd still be using it.


> Because if you find the
> content of his blog useful, thought provoking, etc, perhaps he could be
> persuaded to fire the updates at us less often?


Perhaps, indeed. But does it really matter?

I can't speak for others, and if a majority of people would prefer Gerard to
reduce the number of emails he sends to the list, then I think he should act
accordingly. But personally, I value his emails - especially since I have
not yet found a reliable RSS-to-email service.

Incidentally, compared to some other mailing lists I've subscribed to,
LIS-UKEIG is pretty low-volume, even taking Gerard's posts into account.
Still, most mailing lists have policies about what constitutes spam. If
LIS-UKEIG has such a policy and if Gerard is in breach of it, he should be
warned and - if he continues to be in breach of it - blocked. Mailing list
management isn't rocket science.


> Until then I will look into reliable ways of sending him into spam without
> missing useful emails from this group.


Fair enough. That's exactly the *kind* of responsibility I take on myself
when I subscribe to a mailing list, as I mentioned above.

Sam