Re: delivery lag and type of subscription Explanation of

[Bernie & Diana Bennett <bennetts@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

list/diigest  behaviour (long no Alfa Content)
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Reply-To: Bernie & Diana Bennett <bennetts@domain.elided>

Ian:

I did not see your post from Saturday until today; and have not noticed
any replies on list.  Maybe someone has clued you in by now.  But I
think for the benefit of all and especially those for whom the Alfa List
and the resulting Alfa-Digest is the only mailing list  to which they
subscribe, permit me to explain what I think I know.

Richard does the automotive enthusiasts a great service by running a
number of special interest lists including the Alfa List.

Using automated list management software incoming email directed to
digest.net is distributed to subscribers.  Depending on how you
subscribe you either

get each message as it is sent to the list with little lag, seconds or
minutes for those who subscribe alfa@domain.elided get this kind of service
and can actively in realtime post and recieve messages and answers)  I
ususlly reply to all (unless I feel the topic merits only private
discussion in which case I just reply to the sender.  (more about this
later.)

OR Those who subscribe to alfa-digest@domain.elided get a collated message
containing 5, 10, n messages once, twice three and maybe even four times
a day if traffic is heavy.  This format is harder to reply to as it is
necessary to cut and paste and often results in the subject line of the
reply being the ugly and uninformative re:alfa-digest V7 #7. (It's good
form to replace this or tack on to it the actual subject of the
message).

ADVANTAGES:  The advantage of the digest format is only a couple of
lines in the in-box each day.  However, for filing messages in separate
mail folders by subject, the individual message format is preferable. 
It is also possible in your browser to sort by subject or sender or by
message thread (kind of a subject sort) and read (or quickly delete)
messages thus sorted.

Another neat thing is it does not matter to the individual message
receivers whether a person sends to the list format or the digest
format.  Both types of message are handled by the mailer are forwarded
in the same timely manner.

One might try the individual message format rather than the digest
format for its flexability unless:

Your email traffic is already high and you don't really care to get a
bunch of messages;
or you think the high message traffic will annoy your employer / service
provider.

Lastly, if you are new to the list, go to Richard's web site and read
the FAQ's on different cars looking for answers.  The digest is archived
there too, tho' I find it hard to locate anything there. I've heard
there is a project to organize or put an index engine on the digest to
make it searchable.

Best Wishes
Bernie Bennett
Brenham, TX

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End of alfa-digest V7 #19
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