An observation

[H. S. Teoh]

On Wed, May 02, 2012 at 07:41:54AM -0700, Sean Kelly wrote:
[...]
> Usenet can be moderated too.
[...]

Yikes! When I read that I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry.
Usenet? Moderation? Wow...

Anyway, back on topic, I have this suspicion that a lot of the
complaints about the forums is due to not using a forum/mail reader that
has adequate threading facilities.

I use Mutt, and I have no problem at all following threads that I'm
interested in and ignoring threads I'm not interested in. Mutt shows the
full thread tree of the discussion, and allows you to delete an entire
subthread with a single keystroke, so all you have to do when you see
the beginning of an uninteresting thread is to hit D, and it all goes
away. Or just navigate past the uninteresting subtree of the discussion.
This is within a single discussion, of course. The thread-delete
function is also eminently useful for unrelated threads that you aren't
interested in: just thread-delete the entire tree with the uninteresting
subject line, and you're done. Mutt can also expand/collapse threads so
that you don't drown in the sea of giant thread trees. It isn't perfect
in this area (ideally it should let you do the same with subtrees) but
it's pretty dang good.

Not that I'm advocating Mutt, but I do recommend taking the time to
learn to use a threading mail/news reader. It will help you keep up with
very high traffic mailing lists/forums, and not just the D forums. (D's
forums are relatively tame, comparatively speaking. I've been on mailing
lists where traffic is measured in units of hundreds per day. And I used
to be subscribed to several of them. Never had a problem keeping up.
Just delete tree whenever it's tl;dr. :-))


T

-- 
Elegant or ugly code as well as fine or rude sentences have something in common: they don't depend on the language. -- Luca De Vitis