[HECnet] digest mode

[Phil Mendelsohn]

Once upon a time, Peter Coghlan allegedly said

Do people really want digest mode here?

Yes (for me, at least - I always have!).   And an archive of past
messages
would be really nice...


I've never see the attraction of digest mode. People who are not on digest
reply to topics of interest immediately. People on digest reply hours or
days
later when everyone else has lost interest. Sometimes they end up replying
with the subject of the digest instead of the subject of the posting they
are
replying to. Topics become very disjointed.

I just shove hecnet mails in a VMS MAIL folder as they arrive and I have
an
instant message archive. This works ok provided there isn't too much
off-topic
stuff so I don't have to decide what to keep and what to toss.

If we could agree to keep things more on topic and to put more thought
into
it before banging off a quick message to the list, I wonder would that
reduce
the need for a digest mode?

No. And it's far easier to implement digest than get users to behave.

Digest is less desirable if you are active on the list and can do it
often.   When there are high
volumes of traffic you only want to read, digest becomes more desirable.

You can still get individual msgs if you want them. Why take the option
away from someone else?

Phil


-- 
"There is some truth in your fiction,
and some fiction in your truth." -- Animatrix