From: Eric L. Strobel (fyzycyst_at_comcast.net)
Date: Fri May 09 2003 - 06:06:38 PDT
on 05/09/03 4:23 AM, Jeremy Bond Shepherd at jbond_at_jameswhale.com wrote:
> Agreed! And I'll add to that: in my humble experience the whole mailing
> list concept works much, MUCH better if you subscribe to the DIGEST
> version. That way, you get 1-3 e-mails per day instead of, say 12-30. I
> vastly prefer Usenet groups for this kind of discussion, however, I
> acknowledge that some folks are more comfortable reading and replying
> to messages via e-mail instead of Usenet. In this case, I encourage
> them to investigate a DIGEST subscription to the mailing list instead
> of the normal, default method. I fact, I wonder whether setting user
> default subscriptions to DIGEST mode would make the majority of folks
> happier than defaulting to regular mode... Hmmmmmmm....... points to
> ponder.
Just a few problems with that. For me, as I don't have a 2x00 or eMate and
am not likely to any time soon, much of the traffic on this list is (again,
for *me*) nothing but dross. Digests are sheer hell to read through even
when your personal signal-to-noise threshold is low (i.e., you read most of
the messages), as things are presented in a linear fashion. A threading
mail reader is (for me) much more efficient.
But that's all personal, so let's consider the poor newbie... "I joined the
list but I see no messages, am I really on?" We get those messages somewhat
regularly. Then there's the messages that we'll inevitably be flooded with
having subjects of "RE: Newtontalk Digest #yyy". Thanks only to our list
admin that we don't still suffer from such messages which also quote the
entire digest.
Not saying that it can't be done, not even that it shouldn't be done, just
that we should all be aware of the potential problems and frustrations
involved.
- Eric.
-- Eric Strobel (fyzycyst_at_NOSPAM^mailaps.org) ===================================================================== You can lead an idiot to knowledge, but you can't make him think... ===================================================================== -- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries List FAQ/Etiquette/Terms: http://www.newtontalk.net/faq.html Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/
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