Date:         Tue, 30 Dec 1997 11:10:02 EST
From: the little tinker <mbarker@MIT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Filler: CRITS (Topic Tags!)

Just a reminder, for those who may have forgotten...

Subject lines come in many flavors here.  We have seven main types:

Subject: SUB: This is my story...
        for the original story, poem, essay, etc.  Some people put
(poem) or some such right up there to help us know what it is just
from the subject line.  And, at times, we may identify content which
we think may be difficult for some members (e.g., contains explicit
violence)

Subject: CRIT: This is my story...
        for responses to the original.  comments, detailed critiques,
deconstructive rewriting...change the SUB: to CRIT: when you reply.

Subject: TECH: This is my way...
        for pieces about the techniques of the writer(technical,
artistic, whatever)

Subject: EXER: This is your way...
        for exercises.  help each other bend that finger and push that
pen!  make the muses sweat and the craft well-known.

Subject: WOW: This is the way of the world!
        for World of Writing pieces.  Things happening out there in
the world of writers and writing that we all might like to know
about--our own news service, if you will.

Subject: FILL: Here's something lighter...
        Sigh.  Filler.  The idea was that there are observations about
the world, little bits and pieces of scene setting or description, the
occasional discussion of buttered cats or similar pressing issues, and
other exchanges or information which are interesting or useful to our
fellow writers.
        Periodically, this topic threatens to take over the list.  One
of the individual disciplines which some people use to help avoid this
tendency is to try to balance their postings--for each fill posting,
make at least one solid sub, crit, tech, exer, or wow posting.  Others
try to provide Obligatory Writing Content (OWC) even in the fill
postings.
        And we occasionally have to stop and discuss the pro's and
con's of filler.

Subject: INT: This is OUR story...
        Round robbins.  Multiple Author stories.  Common Background
Individual stories.  And the current trend, which seems to be towards
writing ourselves into strange and wonderful backgrounds...
        This is the "playground" for stories where you invite other
people to participate.  We've had a number of conventions, and if you
have a fairly popular, long-running sequence, tink often will try to
"collect" the stories on his web pages.

This is the eighth type:

Subject: This one falls between the cracks...
        Subject lines without a topic tag do go out, but only to the
members who are getting all topics.  However, they aren't going to go
to members who are using topic filtering so your fine submission will
be missed by many members.  I.e., use the topic tags so that your
postings are seen by the right audience.

And a few notes on the tags:

The full names of the topics (as listserv understands them) are
SUBMISSION, CRITIQUE, TECHNIQUE, EXERCISE, WOW, FILLER, INTERACTIVE

While listserv will accept any shortening of these created by chopping
off extra letters (down to S: C: T: E: W: F: I:), I suggest using the
ordinary shortenings (SUB: CRIT: TECH: EXER: WOW: FILL: INT:) as these
are easier for your reader to understand.  (p.s. listserv is a
program, and it won't 'understand' creative spellings of the topics.
also, the colon ":" is necessary.)

Any number of "Re:"s can be between the Subject: and the topic tag
without a problem.  Anything else will make the topic tag
unrecognizable to LISTSERV (e.g. Re(2): causes trouble, as do
additions such as "My Sub:").

Okay?  So original submissions come in under SUB:  Comments and
critiques of submissions belong under CRIT:  And when you've strayed
away from the original submission, consider moving the discussion to
FILL or TECH (depending on where you think it fits best).

Postings starting in other areas (TECH:, WOW:, FILL:, INT:, or EXER:)
may produce responses that belong in a different topic.  For example,
a response to a EXER: could easily be a SUB:, TECH:, or FILL: piece.
TECH: threads often spin off FILL: pieces...and so on.

And anytime the content changes dramatically (we were talking about
cats, but now we're discussing child-rearing practices), consider
re-titling the thread.  I recommend the format (for the change):

Subject: FILL: Child-Rearing Should be Seen (was: Cat Guts Doth Not a
         Viola Make)

and the next person can then change it to

Subject: FILL: Child-Rearing Should be Seen

In summary:
    - Use the topic tags (SUB: CRIT: TECH: EXER: WOW: FILL: INT:).
    - Change the Subject topic and title as needed
    - and write!

[hum...good subject lines make better readers?]

tink

(for more information, you might consult the FAQs at
http://web.mit.edu/mbarker/www/faqs/faqs.html )