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 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=433