On 12 Jan 2004, Douglas Winship <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> When "topics" was introduced, I thought "nifty idea."  The more I learned
> about how it worked the less my enthusiasm.  I would not use "topics"
> for any list, knowing how little attention subscribers pay to even the
> most clear instructions, and the complexity, with little benefit, with
> which the listowner must contend with "topics."
>
> A good idea which soured due to the complexity of implentation.
 >

We have a number of announcement lists which use the topics feature. Most are
lists of students, and the topics usually correspond to class levels. For
example, a hall director can use a topics-enabled list to send a message only
to freshmen or sophomores, or to send a message to all residents. We provide
the owners of topics-moderated announcement lists with instructions for doing
bulk adds in a manner that ensures that appropriate topics are set for all
subscribers.

--
Paul Russell
Senior Systems Administrator
University of Notre Dame