How to deal with mailing lists?

D

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Even though I'm not using my main mail box for mailing lists, I'm still bathed with messages I have nothing to do with. As I have subscribed to too much mailing lists, I'm about to close this email account. How do you deal with the mailing lists without being annoyed by them I wonder? Thanks.
 
drhowarddrfine said:
You remove yourself from the mailings and only visit the list archives.
Click to expand...
Nope. I have to subscribe to the list because I also posted on the list. But I not only receive emails about someone replied to my content but also other people's content and it flooded my mail box.
 
I use my MUA's KMail built-in filter facility. I also tried sieve scripts, but did not succeed, although my e-mail provider supports them. Maybe I have to edit them through the web interface, but I rarely use that because a local e-mail frontend like Kontact/KMail is more convenient. Browse through /usr/ports/mail, there are plenty of tools to sort your incoming mail into folders when the mail arrives or gets fetched via POP or IMAP. For shure a so-called free e-mail provider (where you pay with your data instead of money) will not allow you to automagically sort their advertising mailings into the trash folder...
See here for two alternative e-mail+ (cloud storage) providers at the cost of 1€/month. At least Posteo supports sieve scripts, very likely Mailbox.org, too. Many lists offer a digest mode, i.e. you get many mails bundled, once or twice a day, instead of all the posts separate.
kmail_mailing-lists.png
 
Messages that I receive from mailing lists are automatically filtered into seperate folders (one folder per list). I only look at those folders if I need to, otherwise I can simply ignore them.

Such automatic filtering can be done in various ways, and it depends on the kind of mail server you use. “Classic” mail filtering software would be mail/procmail or mail/maildrop (personally I prefer the latter because I think the syntax of the configuration language is much cleaner and less error-prone). Some email providers (gmail etc.) support such filtering, too, although the possibilities are usually somewhat limited.
 
Thank you all but I admit I hardly understand anything of your posts. I'm using a spare AOL mail account to deal with mailing lists. I will check if it supports filtering these messages.
 
You can also setup a nntp client like news/slrn, as I do. then connect to news.gmane.io server and you will have access to more than 34,000 readonly news/mailinglist including FreeBSD mailing list. Then you can take your time, choose and read, fetch and skip, so forth and so on.
I also customized its config file to simulate vim nvi/vim shortcuts. Very handy. You have options to customise colour, and choose your favourite colour for different level of threads, in any single of emails and its threaded replies.
 
sysctl said:
Thank you all but I admit I hardly understand anything of your posts. I'm using a spare AOL mail account to deal with mailing lists. I will check if it supports filtering these messages.
Click to expand...
If you fetch your mail via IMAP, it's comfortable to let your mail client do the filtering. Good graphical e-mail clients are Kontact/KMail (Qt/KDE), Evolution (Mate) or ClawsMail (Gtk, i.e. Mate or XfCE). AOL is more or less evil, it's your free decision if you want to find a better one.
 
sysctl said:
Even though I'm not using my main mail box for mailing lists, I'm still bathed with messages I have nothing to do with. As I have subscribed to too much mailing lists, I'm about to close this email account. How do you deal with the mailing lists without being annoyed by them I wonder? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Well it's quite simple: you unsubscribe.
Then when you need to contribute again, you just re-subscribe.
So, for example, with FreeBSD-arch, just go to this page: https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-arch
and then at the bottom is the unsubscribe field. It just couldn't be easier.
 
How to install news/slrn and subscribe to some of mailing lists:

pkg install news/slrn

Configurations:

~/.profile
Code: 
NNTPSERVER='news.gmane.io'; export NNTPSERVER

cp /usr/local/share/doc/slrn/slrn.rc ~/.slrnrc

~/.slrnrc
Code: 
set username "yourName"
set hostname "domain.name"
set realname "yourName"
set replyto  "yourName <yourEmail@domain.name>"
charset display "utf-8"
charset outgoing "utf-8"

set sorting_method 9

slrn -f ~/.jnewsrc --create

Use / to search list. Find your favourite. e..g
gmane.os.freebsd.announce
gmane.os.freebsd.security.announce
press S to subscribe
press q to quit.
slrn
 
Mailing lists can sometimes be thought of as a "flat" forum with no categories. You will get loads of emails.

What I personally do (possibly not best practice) is to create a dedicated email account for each one and use an email client that can switch between them easily (*not* webmail basically).

i.e:
Code: 
<nickname>_freebsd-ports@gmail.com
<nickname>_freebsd-security@gmail.com

And then once I no longer need them, I just stop using them. If I ever need to subscribe again, I try to make the same email account due to the consistent naming. If it fails, it means I already have one so I just log in with one of my basic passwords.
 
Continue on news/slrn customisations:
This my custom colours (only modified ones). You can modified your ~/.slrnrc accordingly:

Code: 
color quotes    "brown"     "black"
color quotes1   "green"     "black"
color quotes2   "green"     "black"
color quotes3   "green"     "black"
color quotes4   "green"     "black"
color quotes5   "green"     "black"
color quotes6   "green"     "black"
color quotes7   "green"     "black"
color signature "brightred" "black"
color status    "yellow"    "blue"
color subject   "lightgray" "black"

An this is some modifications to simulate nvi/vim shortcuts:
Code: 
%
%% 10. Group mode key bindings
%

% Cursor movement:
setkey group line_down        "j"
setkey group line_up          "k"
setkey group page_down        "^f"     % Scroll to the next page
setkey group page_up          "^b"    % Scroll to the previous page
setkey group bob              "G"    % Go to the bottom of the list
setkey group eob              "g"    % Go to the top of the list
setkey group group_search_backward "?"% Group keyword search backward
setkey group group_search_forward  "/" % Group keyword search forward

% Actions:
setkey group select_group     "l"      % Enter the current newsgroup
setkey group refresh_groups   "^r"      % Get new news from server
setkey group repeat_last_key  "."      % Repeat last key sequence
setkey group suspend          "^z"     % Suspend slrn
setkey group quit             "Q"      % Quit slrn

% Display:
setkey group toggle_list_all  "L"      % Toggle listing of unsubscribed groups
setkey group redraw           "^l"     % Redraw the screen
setkey group help             "\\"      % Display a help screen

%
%% 11. Article mode key bindings
%

% General movement:
setkey article next                    "w"  % next unread article
setkey article previous                "b"  % previous unread article
setkey article skip_to_next_group      "W"  % go to the next group
setkey article skip_to_previous_group  "B"  % go to the previous group

% Actions:
setkey article save                 "p"    % Save article
setkey article pipe                 "|"    % Pipe article
setkey article decode               "d"    % Decode article
setkey article suspend              "^Z"  % Suspend slrn
setkey article quit                 "q"    % Quit slrn
setkey article fast_quit            "Q"    % Quit slrn immediately

% Moving in the article pager:
setkey article article_line_down    "j"  % Scroll article down one line
setkey article article_line_up      "k"  % Scroll article up one line
setkey article article_page_down    "l"  % Scroll article down one page
setkey article article_page_up      "h"  % Scroll article up one page
setkey article article_eob          "L"  % Move to the end of the article
setkey article article_bob          "H"  % Move to the beginning
setkey article article_left         "<"  % Pan article to the left
setkey article article_right        ">"  % Pan article to the right
setkey article article_search       "/"  % Search forward in the article
setkey article skip_quotes          "e"  % Skip beyond quoted text
setkey article forward_digest       "d"  % Skip to next digest

% Moving in the header display:
setkey article header_line_down      "^j"  % Move to next article
setkey article header_line_up        "^k"  % Move to previous article
setkey article header_page_down      "^l"  % Scroll down one page
setkey article header_page_up        "^h"  % Scroll up one page
setkey article header_eob            "$"  % Go to last article in group
setkey article header_bob            "0"  % Go to first article in group
setkey article goto_article          "G"  % Move to article (number)

% Marking as read/unread:
setkey article delete                  "r"  % Mark article as read
setkey article undelete                "u"  % Mark article as unread
setkey article delete_thread           "R"  % Mark (Sub-)Thread as read
setkey article catchup                 "C"  % Catchup (up to this article)
setkey article uncatchup               "c"  % Uncatchup (up to this article)
setkey article expunge                 "X"  % Remove all read articles

% Display properties:
setkey article toggle_headers          "F"  % Full headers (on/off)
setkey article toggle_quotes           "D"  % Display quoted lines (on/off)
setkey article toggle_signature        "S"  % Show signature (on/off)
setkey article wrap_article            "L"  % Wrap long lines (on/off)
setkey article show_spoilers           "~"  % Reveal spoilers (on/off)
setkey article toggle_pgpsignature     "!"  % Show PGP signature (on/off)
setkey article toggle_verbatim_marks   "V"  % Show verbatim marks (on/off)
setkey article enlarge_article_window  "="  % Enlarge the article window
setkey article shrink_article_window   "-"  % Shrink the article window
setkey article zoom_article_window     "f"  % Maximize/Unmaximize article
setkey article hide_article            "A"  % Hide/Show the article window
setkey article browse_url              "U"  % Search for URL and follow it
setkey article toggle_sort             "s"  % Select threading method
setkey article toggle_collapse_threads "T"  % Collapse/Uncollapse thread
setkey article toggle_header_formats   "#"  % Toggle header display formats
setkey article redraw                  "^r"  % Redraw screen
setkey article help                    "\\"  % Display help screen
 
Continue on news/slrn customisations:
This is the list of read-only mailing lists (official and non-official) about FreeBSD on news.gmane.io server:
Code: 
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.cvs
gmane.os.freebsd.advocacy
gmane.os.freebsd.announce
gmane.os.freebsd.architechture
gmane.os.freebsd.bugs
gmane.os.freebsd.bugbusters
gmane.os.freebsd.chat
gmane.os.freebsd.configuration
gmane.os.freebsd.current
gmane.os.freebsd.isp
gmane.os.freebsd.jobs
gmane.os.freebsd.newbies
gmane.os.freebsd.questions
gmane.os.freebsd.security.general
gmane.os.freebsd.security.announce
gmane.os.freebsd.stable
gmane.os.freebsd.test
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.alpha
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.arm
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.atm
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.audit
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.binary-update
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.cluster
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.database
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.documentation
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.emulation
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.firewire
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.file-systems
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.gnome
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.hackers
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.hardware
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.ia64
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.ipfw
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.isdn
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.java
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.libh
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.mobile
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.mozilla
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.multimedia
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.new-bus
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.net
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.platforms
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.ports
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.ppc
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.quality-assurance
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.scsi
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.small
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.smp
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.sparc
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.standards
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.token-ring
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.internationalization
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.afs
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.realtime
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.cvs.ports
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.cvs.src
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.cvs.doc
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.cvs.projects
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.threading
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.ports.bugs
gmane.os.freebsd.questions.german
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.x11
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.amd64
gmane.os.freebsd.italian.varie 1
gmane.os.freebsd.italian.annunci
gmane.os.freebsd.italian.traduzioni
gmane.os.freebsd.italian.aiuto
gmane.os.freebsd.italian.esperti
gmane.os.freebsd.freesbie
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.pf4freebsd
gmane.os.freebsd.performance
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.geom
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.acpi
gmane.os.freebsd.cvs.src.summary
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.apache
gmane.os.freebsd.italian.devel
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.usb
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.lfs
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.openoffice
gmane.os.freebsd.mpd.user
gmane.os.freebsd.eclipse
gmane.os.freebsd.bulgarian.user
gmane.os.freebsd.region.czech.user
gmane.os.freebsd.embedded
gmane.os.freebsd.region.russian
gmane.os.freebsd.region.russian.frdp
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.mips
gmane.os.freebsd.jail
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.python
gmane.os.freebsd.xen
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.virtualization
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.gecko
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.bluetooth
gmane.os.freebsd.wip
gmane.os.freebsd.ruby
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.toolchain
gmane.os.freebsd.chromium
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.office
gmane.os.freebsd.desktop
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.rc
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.xfce
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.ports.announce
gmane.os.freebsd.stable-9.scm
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.wireless
gmane.os.freebsd.bsdrp.user
gmane.os.freebsd.bsdrp.devel
gmane.os.freebsd.bsdrp.announce
gmane.os.freebsd.current.scm
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.infiniband
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.dtrace
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.pkg-fallout
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.pkg
gmane.os.freebsd.mono
gmane.os.freebsd.stable-10.scm
gmane.os.freebsd.cloud
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.transport
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.pkgbase
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.zfs
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.cvs
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.alpha
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.arm
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.atm
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.audit
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.binary-update
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.cluster
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.database
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.documentation
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.emulation
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.firewire
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.file-systems
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.gnome
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.hackers
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.hardware
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.ia64
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.ipfw
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.isdn
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.java
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.libh
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.mobile
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.mozilla
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.multimedia
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.new-bus
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.net
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.platforms
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.ports
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.ppc
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.quality-assurance
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.scsi
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.small
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.smp
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.sparc
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.standards
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.token-ring
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.internationalization
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.afs
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.realtime
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.cvs.ports
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.cvs.src
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.cvs.doc
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.cvs.projects
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.threading
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.ports.bugs
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.x11
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.amd64
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.pf4freebsd
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.geom
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.acpi
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.apache
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.usb
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.lfs
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.openoffice
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.mips
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.python
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.virtualization
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.gecko
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.bluetooth
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.toolchain
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.office
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.rc
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.xfce
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.ports.announce
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.wireless
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.infiniband
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.dtrace
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.pkg-fallout
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.pkg
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.transport
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.pkgbase
gmane.os.freebsd.devel.zfs
 
Oh I love these UNIXoid CLI apps where you have to read two hours through man pages before you're able to use them... ;) Unfortunately, KNode is not supported anymore upstream :(
 
mjollnir said:
Oh I love these UNIXoid CLI apps where you have to read two hours through man pages before you're able to use them.
Click to expand...
GUI clients are great, but when it come to large amount of data, users will eventually experience some noticeable lags and bad performance.
 
vigole said:
mjollnir I'm a KDE advocate, but I think sysctl wants to subscribe to lots of mailing list, therefore I've recommended CLI program.
Click to expand...
Not want. But already do so. Most of the mailing lists I subscribed to are of the BSDs (except OpenBSD, I didn't subscribe to any of their lists). I was annoyed by the pkgsrc-* mailing lists most, as my own message is not shown on the archive but they send me messages about other people's content I have nothing to do with. I don't know what kind of moderation they are doing but I will just unsubscribe.
 
sysctl I'd started by subscribing to moderated lists before I subscribed to high-traffics list. In my opinion, moderated list is better way to start with. List such as freebsd-announce, freebsd-security-notifications and freebsd-amd64
 
mjollnir said:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL#Criticism is several pages long. Shorter but only in german is https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL#Kritik, you can translate to your native language with the online translation service of your choice, e.g. https://translate.google.com
Click to expand...
A little off-topic, but I recommend to also have a look at the DeepL Translator. It often translates better than Google. (Admittedly, their web interface is a little more limited than Google’s and doesn’t work well with huge amounts of text.)
 
mjollnir Does tutanota reliable? I have deleted my yahoo and aol accounts and changed the email address of all of my accounts on the internet to my tutanota email. Github has trouble with tutanota's keemail.me domain, though. It can't send verification email and said the keemail.me domain can't be verified.
 
Thx for the hint, never heard of them before... so I can't comment. If there had been any bad news about them, very likely I would have heard/read about. I guess you should send GitHub an unencrypted mail?
 
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