I sent this post out on the 19th and it never made it to the boards-admins list...? I checked the List Archives and there were no messages posted on the 19th...? Below is the post I copied from my Sent box: From Paul A. Roth Sat Jan 19 15:35:27 2008 Received: from [64.109.2.195] by web80204.mail.mud.yahoo.com via HTTP; Sat, 19 Jan 2008 15:35:27 PST Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2008 15:35:27 -0800 (PST) From: "Paul A. Roth" <[email protected]> View Contact Details Add Mobile Alert Subject: Comprehensive Subject Boxes vs Nebulous Boxes To: [email protected] In-Reply-To: <[email protected]> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="0-1498689172-1200785727=:90930" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 3296 [input] [input] [input] [input] #message572797708542107221027011590532963316073494 { overflow:auto; visibility:hidden } Apologies if this went through twice...my computer just hiccupped! Pardon my bold text...it's easier for me to read...I just went through "my" ROTH Boards: 786 Threads 1840 Messages since 1999. I've seen posts about filling out Comprehensive Subject Boxes (C.S.B.s) over the years and have tried to educate the board (and list) posters about the merits of not posting "Roth", or "Looking For Roths", or "Searching for father (mother/sister/brother)" or "HELP!!!" etc...the same for my 4 other boards and lists. Approx. 86 of those 786 threads were "Roth", etc....so I typed out a post asking my ROTH List members to make 2008 and beyond more user-friendly...spread the word about C.S.B.s...told them about the 86 "improper" S.B.s posts and lauded the mertis of C.S.B.s. I had to stop and make my dinner, so I saved the message. Later, I decided to go back to the boards and see how many "proper" C.S.B.s fared with responses...in case some other board poster checked out my findings. You know what? A Major Majority of C.S.B.s had NO RESPONSES !...???? And...several of the I.S.Bs had approx 1 - 5 reponses...one had 10 !??? Anyone else notice this? Just curious. I haven't, as yet, checked my other boards...but will shortly. Paul ESTRIGHT - EUBANK - FUREY - GRIEST - ROTH Board Admin.

Hi Paul You wrote: > I sent this post out on the 19th and it never made it to the boards-admins list...? I checked the List Archives and there were no messages posted on the 19th...? <snip> > > Pardon my bold text...it's easier for me to read...I just went through "my" ROTH Boards: 786 Threads 1840 Messages since 1999. > > Sounds like your post was written in HTML, which may be why it never made it to the list. Plain text, which is what you should use for list messages, doesn't allow for bold text. > > I've seen posts about filling out Comprehensive Subject Boxes (C.S.B.s) over the years and have tried to educate the board (and list) posters about the merits of not posting "Roth", or "Looking For Roths", or "Searching for father (mother/sister/brother)" or "HELP!!!" etc...the same for my 4 other boards and lists. <snip> > > You know what? A Major Majority of C.S.B.s had NO RESPONSES !...???? And...several of the I.S.Bs had approx 1 - 5 reponses...one had 10 !??? > > Anyone else notice this? Just curious. I haven't, as yet, checked my other boards...but will shortly. > > > I've never taken the time to see if more responses are made to posts with good subject lines or not, but if statistics show fewer responses to posts with awful subject lines I wouldn't be surprised. I'm sure we'd all agree that a subject line that reflects the content of the post and includes the SURNAME, date(s), and location(s) whenever possible is the best kind of subject line. Since posting about subject lines on the surname message boards is off topic, I just take the time to add information (SURNAME, date, location, reason for post) to the first post in the thread if the subject line is an awful generic one. First I check to make sure that the poster hasn't place a duplicate message elsewhere, though, since most of the very active boards I admin are locality boards. It seems that posters that are clueless about good subject lines are also confused about where to post and frequently duplicate messages on a surname board and locality board. If the opportunity arises, I e-mail posters privately and suggest they take a look at "What are the steps to creating a great post?" and the other information in the Board FAQ, which may give them some ideas on how to get better/more responses to their posts. Best wishes, Lynne