[lug] Somewhat OT: Types of list email

[Chris Riddoch]

Jason Strnad <jstrnad at mac.com> writes:
> Sounds like a very complimentary project, perhaps with similar
> problems to solve.

It's very similar to what I'm trying to do, yeah. I'm unfortunately
working on a domain where you can't find quite the same variety of
redundancy that you can in news stories from multiple papers or
(possibly) livejournal posts.

One of the conventions used in emailing is that people often find it
rude to post to a list saying something too similar to what's already
been said, especially on high-traffic lists.  (That is, people know
that it doesn't help discussions to simply state exactly what somebody
else already has.) This results in a little more variability between
posts than might be expected in, say, a network of livejournal users
where people don't assume that others are seeing exactly the same
thing they are.

When people *do* post something similar to what's already been posted,
it's usually not a direct paraphrase of an older post; it's more often
something of the "Me Too" variety.

-- 
epistemological humility
   - Chris Riddoch -