[TAG] Processing the Mailbag

[Thomas Adam]

On Fri, Jun 09, 2006 at 09:53:44AM -0700, Kat wrote:
> It sounds like you're saying that you feel there's good reason not to
> simply publish (nearly) everything that comes through the TAG list.

Hmm?  That's pretty much it.  2c-tips are short answers.  They're either
explicitly marked as such, or inferred to be such based on the person
marking the things up.  TAG is for the longer, more rambly answers.
That's how it works.

> My understanding is that the Knowledge Base is meant to be a reference
> for "need help on this topic that was discussed before", whether it's
> as articles or as e-mail discussion. TAG/Mailbag is published as a
> public record of the list discussion(s).

Pretty much.

> I'm not getting how "worthy" comes into the selection of threads for
> TAG.

I don't know how else to explain it.

> This is where I depart from the old style again. Threads are only
> evaluated for "date prior to cutoff for this issue" and then for
> "Laundrette matters" or "obvious SPAM/nonsense", and then everything
> else gets sorted for *where* it goes, not whether.

Then you're going to find there an awful lot of disparity, and an awful
lot of "followups" happening.  :)

> What would you do with the "someone sent a reply 3 weeks later" sort
> of thing? I've got a system for handling that now, but I'd like to
> know how much of a change this is.

I wouldn't do anything.  As is often the case, that reply three weeks later
itself will generate more replies to the effect that it then becomes
another thread for TAG.  It's true -- and that's based on my experience.

> If something is declared substandard and "Deferred", then even if it's
> not deleted, it's effectively not-present and not-going to be present
> in LG, yes?

No, not at all.  By deferred I mean "put aside" to see what happens.  It's
pretty rare I do (sorry, did) this, but it has happened.

You seem to be under the impression there's some logic or strict criterion
I underwent in order to decide which threads made it into TAG.  There
wasn't any criterion other than length and quality of answer.  Where the
answer was lacking (perhaps due to time, etc.) I would often pad out the
answers with interjections of my own.

At the end of the day, it's not something to get hung up too much about.
;)

-- Thomas Adam

-- 
"If I were a witch's hat, sitting on her head like a paraffin stove, I'd
fly away and be a bat." -- Incredible String Band.