X-Message-Number: 433
From: Kevin Q. Brown
Subject: Digest Format 
Date: 10 Sep 1991

From: whscad1!kqb (Kevin Q Brown +1 201 386 7344)
To: whscad1!kqb
Subject: CRYONICS Digest Format

The cryonics mailing list now uses a "digest format" that combines all the
cryonics messages for the day into one message rather than sending each
as a separate email message.  Of course, when only one message arrives in a
day the new format will not make much difference.  When the mailing list has
more than one message per day, though, this will bring you several advantages:

  (1) you receive all the cryonics mailing list email for the day in one,
      neat package rather than as several email messages, which simplifies
      the management of the email in your mailboxes,
  (2) the header for each digest lists the numbers, subjects, and authors
      of the messages, giving you a summary of the contents in one glance, and
  (3) short messages do not look so frivolous since they add only a few
      bytes to the digest and do not, under the digest system, require routing
      yet another piece of email through the network.

And for those of you who need to find an ulterior motive for this change,
here is an idea to chew on:
  changing to "digest format" results in fewer messages for the machines to
  email and, thus fewer bounced email messages for me to handle when machine
  connections or email addresses go bad. :-)

This change is not without drawbacks for you, but I think that the benefits
far outweigh the disadvantages:

  (1) if you use the "reply" command to reply to a message, the subject line
      of your email message will not automatically specify exactly which
      of the messages in the digest you are replying to,
  (2) if, for some reason, you or your mail system dislike long email messages,
      your dissatisfaction will increase, and
  (3) if you use a commercial service, such as CompuServe, and your method of
      handling email is to inspect quickly the individual email messages and
      then decide (quickly) which email messages to download and which to
      delete without reading, then you may end up paying somewhat greater
      connect time to download the entire digest when you wanted only one
      of the several messages.  (Does anyone actually handle email that way?)

Of course, there may be some drawback that I haven't thought about that someone
will point out immediately now that I've gone and changed the software. :-(
Enjoy the new "digest format" cryonics mailing list!
                                       - Kevin Q. Brown
                                       ...att!whscad1!kqb
                                       


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