ONAT LOPERA

Due to recent events and after a nasty acid reflux episode, I decided to write this little piece to introduce to the not-much-of-a-reader, not-so-tech-y folks the amazing power of the “Options” button. This guide, as what the title says, is idiot-proof. Clearly, I am not saying that you are an idiot, (well not yet ) but I do hope that this guide would solve some of your egroup and flooded inbox woes.

Just a few days ago, I created an egroup for my high school batchmates. So far, it’s doing great. A handful of active posters that comes with a lot of responses filling up members’ inboxes. It’s fun, like the last 6 years didn’t exist. As for this member (ahem ahem creator slash moderator), I love the activity the group is having. I love getting emails especially the ones with one-line responses. It cracks me up. Just like old times. But not everyone feels that way.

By default, all members receives all sent messages to the group. And for members that checks their emails not that frequent, 50+ messages from the egroup would look awful. “My inbox is f*ing flooded!”, like what they’re probably saying. That is why I love my Gmail. It groups email responses into “Conversations”, so Gmail handles all messages from the group under the same subject into one “long” email. Introduction ends here.

And now I present you the often ignored links that could solve almost everything. I’ll start with the long idiot-proof solution first, d’accord?

The Long Idiot-proof Solution

All email providers have options on them that you can edit and set to suit your needs. You can control (almost) everything the goes into your inbox. Let’s pick Yahoo! Mail as the email provider to explore and set. (Actually, I had to pick this because most of the members from our egroup are Yahoo! users. This one is for them.) As for other email providers, I’m sure some of the steps and settings are the similar. This guide would give an idea of the whole thing. You are not an idiot, right?

I’m sure you have seen this.

Top-right. You see that “Options” text? That will be your best friend for now. Click click.

Assuming you clicked it, you are now on the Yahoo! Mail’s Mail Options page. Take some time to go through all of what is in that page. Absorb and familiarize. Read some of them, better yet, all of them. That is the problem with some people today, they just don’t read. Most solutions are there right under your noses, waiting to be read. Now, under the “Management” column, dead center, you will see “Filters”.

Click that and it will bring you to the Filter Management page. Probably you’ll see nothing there. Just the number of filters you can create and some buttons. Click “Add” to use up one of your alloted filters you could create. It will bring you to this page:

For egroup messages, like Yahoo! Groups, the subjects of all its messages have a recurring “opening” line. That will be the key of your filter. Look above and examine. (Matching case is optional.) Choose and decide what to filter. I suggest you choose the “New Folder” option under the “Move the message to” setting so that you could create a folder where all the filtered emails would go to so that it won’t flood your precious inbox. After creating the filter, a dialog box will appear asking for the name of that new folder. Name it with what pleases you. I suggest this:

Congratulations! Give yourself a pat on the back, you’ve just created an email filter. Now, when you check your Yahoo! Mail, it will look something like this:

Like mine, I have about 12 filters on my account and above is my usual day-to-day view on my email welcome page. Some 2-3 filters moving messages on the same folder. Filtered messages goes to their respective folders. Organized. Isn’t it pretty? LOL

There is no point using this feature:

Why else did you joined the group in the first place if you will be blocking all messages sent through it?

Long solution ends here.

The best way on solving problems like this is to go to the source where it call comes from: the egroup itself.

The Short Idiot-proof Solution

Again, every egroup sites have settings on them. Let’s pick the Yahoo! Groups‘ service. I guess you know why I picked this? Now, I’d like to introduce to you your “other” new best friend, Yahoo! Groups’ “Edit Membership” link.

Top-left-ish, just in case. Click it. Again, absorb and familiarize. And under “Message Delivery”, you will see something like this:

Pretty clear, isn’t it? Again, pick one that suits your needs. Save and you’re done.

Short solution ends here.

That’s not so bad, isn’t it? To sum it all up, I’ll give you one of my not-so-quote-material quotes to live by because I can and I am an idiot:

Sometimes you just have to read the manual, almost everything is there, waiting to be read.
- Onat Lopera, ONATLOPERA.COM

That’s how I know all of “these”, I “explore”.

And for those who are saying “I don’t have time to read this and that…”, THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR TAKING TIME TO READ THIS, I REALLY APPRECIATE IT. Like what that newspaper ads says, “Invest on you mind.” You owe it to yourself.

Well, that was fun! This may turn out to be the launch of a new category. Looking forward on writing more of these soon!