RE: How does the digest "work" (too long)

[Frank <fca@domain.elided>]

Jon asked: How does the digest "work"

I'll take a stab at this one.

SUMMARY:
Each recepient of the Alfa Digest receive member postings in one of two
possible ways.  Some people get member postings as individual emails
from the person who posted it, and others (including Jon) get it as a
collection of postings contained in a single physical email.

DETAIL:
Let's assume that Brian Shorey gets Alfa Digest postings on a
single-email-at-a-time basis and Jon gets it as a collection of emails
packaged within a single email.  When Frank (that's me) sends an email
to the Alfa Digest asking for help with his Milano, the email goes to
Richard Welty's Alfa Digest server.  The digest server takes that email
from Frank and sends it to everyone on the Alfa Digest list who opted to
get postings on an individual-email basis.  The digest server also takes
that email and puts it in a queue named Alfa-Digest-Vol4-#3 (or
something like that).

Because Brian gets postings individually he will receive Frank's email
but Jon will not -- at least not yet.  Brian knows the answer to Frank's
question so he hits the REPLY button, changes the subject line to
something meaningful (so it doesn't say RE: Alfa-Digest-Vol4-#3), writes
his reply and clicks the SEND button.  His reply post is sent to the
Alfa Digest server.

Between the time Frank sent his original question to the Digest Server
and Brian replied to it, several other digesters have sent postings that
the digest server stored in the queue named Alfa-Digest-Vol4-#3,
including Frank's Milano question and Brian's reply to that question. 
At some point (proberbly based on the number of postings in the queue)
the digest server decides it's time to send all the postings in the
Vol4-#3 queue to digesters that opted to receive postings in digest
format (as opposed to individual format like Brian Shorey).  The server
sends off the Vol4-#3 digest to all of those digest format people,
including Jon, who receive a single email titled Alfa-Digest-Vol4-#3. 
In that single email is a compilation of all the postings made within a
time period, including Frank's Milano question and Brian's reply to it.

The difference between Jon and Brian is that Jon gets postings in bulk
(digest format) consolidated into a single email by Richard's digest
server while Brian gets it individually as it happens.  For every Alfa
Digest that Richard Welty's server sends to Jon, it will send 20 to 30
individual postings to Brian who will receive them before Jon gets his
one digest.

Before you decide that Brian has the better deal, take into
consideration that 4 to 5 digests are sent on a typical weekday, more if
there's a pissing contest going on.  Contained within each of these
digests are at least 20 postings.  If you switch to the individual
format then you will get 80 to 100 emails a day from digest members!!!

- -Frank

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