[ppml] some mh trickery that could be instructive

[vixie at isc.org]

"Hey! 1994 called, and they want your mailer back!"

[sa:amd64] pick -after 28feb2007 +arin/ppml -seq foo
283 hits
[sa:amd64] mhpath foo +arin/ppml >~/foo
[sa:amd64] cat `cat ~/foo` > ~/bar
[sa:amd64] grep ^From: ~/bar | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head -5
  45 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm at ipinc.net>
  34 From: <michael.dillon at bt.com>
  25 From: Member Services <info at arin.net>
  24 From: Edward Lewis <Ed.Lewis at neustar.biz>
  11 From: Owen DeLong <owen at delong.com>
[sa:amd64] grep ^Subject: ~/bar | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head -5
 106 Subject: Re: [ppml] Proposed Policy: IPv4 Countdown
  30 Subject: Re: [ppml] Policy Proposal: 2007-12 IPv4 Countdown Policy ...
  16 Subject: Re: [ppml] Policy Proposal 2007-8: Transfer Policy ...
  14 Subject: Re: [ppml] Getting aggressive about vetting
  10 Subject: Re: [ppml] PI assignment subdelegation?

i suspect that most of the n>1000 subscribers to PPML are no longer listening
to the top five subjects or the top five posters here.  indeed, the endless
back and forth on points of trivial (are so! am not!) will mostly alienate
the masses, rather than inform or involve them.

i suggest taking a step backward.  stop hitting reply.  read what folks say,
refile or delete it, wait a few days, and post a considered position statement.
lather, rinse, repeat.  (if i weren't a board member, i'd've unsubscribed by
now -- and i love this stuff more than most folks.)

(of course, noone would ignore info at arin.net, shown as top-five above due to
automated and routine posts.)