add some more info to the initial tagging page

diff --git a/initial_tagging.mdwn b/initial_tagging.mdwn
index 6239919fa7af2e3a54eb2e1abe117a60e73b8b42..40e9acfd5cdc2c10f67a84833024ac6ef22388c2 100644 (file)
--- a/initial_tagging.mdwn
+++ b/initial_tagging.mdwn
@@ -1,8 +1,37 @@
-# Initial Tagging
+# Approaches to initial tagging of messages
 
 This page collects scripts and strategies for organizing mail using
 notmuch and doing automated initial tagging.
 
+Here's a very general and ad-hoc approach to initial message tagging.
+The [new] config section allows you to control which tags new messages
+receive.  This sets all new messages to get the "new" tag:
+
+    [new]
+    tags=new;
+
+After running "notmuch new", all new messages will be marked "new".
+You can then do various tag post-processing by just acting on messages
+with that tag.  For instance, a post-processing script might do the
+following:
+
+    # immediately archive all messages from "me"
+    notmuch tag -new -- tag:new and from:me@example.com
+
+    # delete all messages from a spammer:
+    notmuch tag +deleted -- from:spam@spam.com
+
+    # tag all message from notmuch mailing list
+    notmuch tag +notmuch -- to:notmuch@notmuchmail.org
+
+    # finally, retag all "new" messages s "inbox" and "unread"
+    notmuch tag +inbox +unread -new -- tag:new
+
+Since the post-processing is only acting on a few messages, it is
+generally extrememly fast.
+
+## Other solutions
+
 * [This
   email](http://notmuchmail.org/pipermail/notmuch/2010/001691.html)
   (and related thread) details Carl Worth's approach to tagging. It is