gmail mailing list/filtering tip

A quick tip for mailing list management in gmail:

If you’re like me, and you subscribe to a high-volume mailing list, you probably filter those messages out of your inbox and label them for access later. This is great, however it comes with one problem: when you click on a label to view it, gmail’s “muted” special label no longer applies. This is a problem because you lose the ability to mute annoying threads. And if you’re also like me in that you subscribe to a high-volume mailing list that has a lot of idiots and trolls – hypothetically, say, the east nashville mailing list – you might want to mute these dumb fuckers. Hypothetically. There is a way:

1. Go to Settings -> Labs and enable the “Quick Links” feature.
2. Search for “label:[yourlabelhere] -is:muted” – this gives you a view of your labelled messages minus any that have been muted. This magic incantation is enough to bring back the “mute” button in any given thread, as well.
3. Create a quick link on the left and give it whatever name you like. Use this quick link from now on to access your mailing list, and mute away.

Bye-bye, debates about terrorists imposing sharia law on america!