Kathryn Hornbein <kurlew at earthlink.net> writes:

>>Thank you, I didn't know this sort of thing existed. Now to figure
>>it out on my Mac....

Exact details depend on which mail program you use, but the
basics are the same no matter which program or OS. Look in the
preferences, or all of the menus, (or as a last resort, in the
documentation :-)) for anything about 'filters' or 'rules'.
There are two basic parts to a filter: a condition that results
in true/false, and an action that will happen only if the
condition is true. For each mail message, the filters are
applied in order one at a time, until a 'skip the rest' action
is reached or perhaps until the message is moved out of the
Inbox. The most used conditions are things like a particular
header line contains (or doesn't contain) something specific,
and the most used actions are to label the message somehow
(color, flag, priority), and/or to move it to a different
mailbox.


Assuming that you're using Apple's Mail on OS X:

Create a mailbox for Tweeters mail.

Go to the Mail Preferences, and look for the Rules panel (should
be to the far right).

Select Add Rule, and give it a meaningful name.

In the pull down menu that starts out as From, select "Edit
Header list..." (at the bottom) and add one that says
"List-Post" (without the quotes)*. Once you have a List-Post
header in the menu, it will stay in the menu for future filters,
too.

Make the dialog box read like this:

If any of the following conditions are met:
List-Post Contains tweeters at u.washington.edu
Move message to (mailbox you created for tweeters)

Repeat for all mailing lists.

It's also handy to add a few rules that flag or color messages
on topics or from people of interest/anti-interest so you don't
miss anything good (or can more easily skip things). If you do
this, they should be done as separate rules that come -before-
the sorting into the separate mailbox. Note that this will also
affect non-mailing list messages. It's possible to flag
specific types of messages within a particular mailing list, but
that's that's an advanced topic... (Note that the more filters
you create, the longer it will take to process your incoming
mail, and the greater the risk of filters that conflict with
each other, so don't go overboard right away. Go overboard
gradually, instead).

There are two sorts of filter actions you should never use.
Never create a filter that deletes mail! It's too easy to make
a mistake and lose something important. Never automatically
send mail, such as replying with a vacation message, or
auto-forwarding! It's too easy to create an exponentially
growing mail loop which goes on a rampage causing trouble to
everyone. But just about anything else goes.


* List-Post is usually the best header line for filtering
mailing lists. Do NOT filter on anything in the subject line!
Subject lines tell lies, either by accident (a private reply
instead of a true list reply) or by malice (worms that hijack
real messages as camouflage). If List-Post: isn't available
(rare now), there's almost certainly a Sender: line, and if not,
To: will work if it's the posting address of the list. But for
list filtering, avoid the subject line like the plague. Because
these days, it can be the plague.
--
Allyn Weaks allyn at tardigrade.net
Seattle, Sunset zone 5
Pacific Northwest Native Wildlife Gardening: http://www.tardigrade.org/natives/
Economists are the last group of people on earth to believe in
perpetual motion.