Changing subject body and subject header

Tue Aug 9 14:27:52 PDT 2005

On Aug 9, 2005, at 2:03 PM, Cheryl Morris wrote:

> If you change the subject body of an e-mail, please also change the 
> subject header.

I'm not really changing the subject, here, although it might
look like it at first glance. There's a phenomenon on Usenet --
I know it as the bolivian road repair tactic -- where when
somebody posts something that is just not what the group
is interested in talking about, and it's clear that any
attempt to point this out is just going to bog everybody
down in meta-discussion and feed flames, you reply to it by
discussing something you *are* interested in talking about.
Interesting recipes. Bolivian road repair. Wireless networking
standards. Whatever. When the topic takes off, you change
the header. The initial topic keeps the same subject because
it is a reply.

So let's discuss system administration. Under whatever subject
lines seem appropriate at the time.

	Elizabeth Zwicky
	zwicky at greatcircle.com