Females in the community.

[H. S. Teoh via Digitalmars-d]

On Thu, Mar 24, 2016 at 03:50:31PM +0000, Adam D. Ruppe via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> On Thursday, 24 March 2016 at 15:26:09 UTC, H. S. Teoh wrote:
> >The entire reason I've avoided web-based email clients like the
> >plague is because I've yet to see one that handles tree threading
> >correctly
> 
> Oh, I also avoid web-based email clients... though one of the biggest
> PROBLEMS I have with gmail is that it attempts to thread things
> automatically!

I agree that trying to thread things automatically where there is
actually no relation is extremely annoying.  I have yet to find "smart"
software that doesn't do something really dumb.


> I just want everything presented to me, in chronological order. My
> brain has a storage capacity of more than 800 quadrillion bits and a
> total linear computation speed of 60 trillion operations per second.
> It is equipped with sophisticated hardware-accelerated pattern
> recognition algorithms capable of multi-dimensional spacial processing
> as well as state-of-the-art natural language handling.
> 
> Most attempts at computer assistance do little beyond hindering the
> operation of my superior neural net. Just feed me the data!

That's good for you. Me, I don't have the time/energy to devote all of
the processing power of my brain just to keep up with a single forum --
I am subscribed to many high-volume mailing lists, and I simply can't
keep up with *all* of it on top of all the other (arguably more
important!) things in my life.  Tree threading lets me kill entire 500+
post threads in one shot (or any subtree thereof, depending on which
part of the conversation is pertinent to me), which is a lifesaver in
this age of information overload.  One has to pick his battles, and I
choose to only read stuff that *might* be pertinent to my interests,
rather than wade through *everything*, especially when a lot of it
doesn't even concern me (most of this thread, for example, of which I've
only read 1% because, frankly, 90% of it was (probably) off-topic
drivel).


> >Without proper tree threading there's simply no way anyone can keep
> >track of things past that point.
> 
> I at least skim *every* post made in the ng, usually close to real
> time as they come in. The content is then digested and indexed in my
> brain for future use (and the undigested data is still available
> through the computer and my local client can look it up by date,
> poster, content, or yes, the threading headers all with ease)
> 
> I often see people complain about how they find 50 emails a day to be
> completely unmanageable.

At one point, I was dealing with 4-digit numbers of emails a day.
Tree-threading makes it possible to retain my sanity. :-P  (Fortunately,
I've reduced my high-volume subscriptions since -- by a lot.)  I guess
your mental capabilities exceed mine, but I'm pretty sure that at some
point, maybe around the 1000+/day mark or somewhere thereabouts, even
you would have to concede that some discussion threads really ought to
be outright ignored because they eat up time and energy for negligible
gain.


> I've handled an average of about 350 per day, every day, for about six
> years now. It takes about 10% of my work day, which isn't
> insignificant, but being aware of what's going on - sometimes, one
> person's problem today is my answer tomorrow - brings benefits in
> excess of the cost.

Unfortunately, I don't have 10% of my day to devote to wading through
email. There are far more important things in my life than that!


T

-- 
I don't trust computers, I've spent too long programming to think that they can get anything right. -- James Miller