[Mailman-Users] archive - ergonomics of date

[Tyrus Maynard]

I have questions about the way that index listings of postings is 
displayed in Mailman for all sorted listing ...sorted by 
Date,Subject/Thread or Author. This is not about search tools, only the 
sorted lists offered for browsing.

  1. Why is date not shown for all sorted posting lists in Mailman ?
     (Why is date not shown for ANY sorted posting lists  )

1a  Why is date not provided/shown for  a list by DATE sorting?
    Now WHY would I want an index sorted by DATE that scrolls over more 
than a screenfull  WITHOUT having the Date provided on each entry.
How many clicks do I want to execute to find the "sweet spot" in a long 
list  that  approximates  April 15,2002  ...Mailman archiving forces the 
opening of multiple irrelevant postings just to find an approximate date 
to begin browsing for old content.
   It is unthinkable to me to provide a SORTED list without the content 
of the SORT FIELD being displayed  ...if you don't believe me try the 
same for a subject sort or an author sort.  I really don't do games on 
computers ....except at a Mailman Date archive, where I can play hit the 
  "pinnata" with multiple blind mouse clicks.

1b  Why is date not shown for a listing by Thread/Subject?
   Let me propose that the date of a message is also important to 
evaluating its  significance. For threads that are familiar (whether 
followed or particpating poster) I retain a rough chronology of the 
conversation.  Also,when I visit a new thread, I know that sometimes an 
important post is an OUTLIER .... separated in time from the starting 
post. Outliers often provide thoughtful informative followup  (on an 
active list an outlier may be hours old compared to minutes old).   I 
don't claim that  outliers are always significant, but the TIME SEQUENCE 
of a SUBJECT THREAD gives important clues to the conversation.   Also it 
is important to revisiting a thread  which is well remembered, because 
the basic FLOW of CONVERSATION may also be recalled on a revisit.  Date 
is an important clue in a sorted listing  by subject.

1c  Why is date not shown for listing by Author ?

  Do lists have dominant Authors posting important stuff? Yes.
The way I remember an old post is this:
  "That important security issue, that I can't remember the name of (and 
which probably doesn't have "security" as a search term)"
   Posted by  "Guru Joe"   (who knows alot about security on this list)
   Posted in  "January or February of 2002"
Naturally I would like to browse the Author listing of Guru Joe and find 
the  region around Jan Feb 2002  ....not much fun in a Mailman archive 
...unless you enjoy !

   Interestingly solving 1a,1b,1c does not require any new algorithm, 
...just piping the existing data into the display ... the existing 
spacing of  sorted list display  has available whitespace.
  (Now at the end of my sermon, please tell me it was a wasted appeal, 
and that there is already an overlooked  toggle setting to display date 
somewhere in the admin interface)

  This link to a long thread on "Future of Pipermail" is old
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/mailman-developers/2000-November/007823.html
   This is a clue to me that the future is NOW and the archiver is 
languishing from developer interest ...to any developer on this user 
list,please post this DATE issue into the developer-list.

  I hope my pitch for DATE DISPLAY is well received by developers who 
follow this userlist and provocative enough to earn a short thread and 
priority in the next version.
Thanks

Tyrus Maynard