Date:         Sun, 29 Jun 1997 16:02:10 -0500 (US Eastern Standard Time)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Harold  Teer <teerhb@jmu.edu>
Subject:      Digest Mode

In response to questions about digest mode, I will provide you my 
opinion after having used it for over a year.

I teach at a university and receive anywhere from 20-50 e-mail messages 
a day from other faculty, students, administrators.  Putting the 
vanagon list messages (30-60) on top of my normal daily traffic was 
just too much e-mail.  Our system was not set up to allow me to 
have vanagon messages sent to a separate folder.  So, I tried the 
digest mode out of desperation since I love the list but the number of 
messages I was receiving was making my life too difficult.

Now, I receive one message a day from the list.  At the beginning of 
the message there is a listing of all messages for the day with a 
number associated with each message.  For example, if I see a subject 
listing for something I am interested in, I notice what message 
number it is and just scroll down to that message. The complete e-mail 
message is there with the heading, body, and signature. If I want to 
read all messages for the day, I just open the one message and then 
scroll down and read the full content.  

What do I see as advantages?  
I only receive one message a day from the vanagon list.  If I am out 
of town for 4 days, I only have 4 vanagon messages and not 200.  If I 
am out of town for 10 days I don't have to remember to unsubscribe 
before I leave since I will only have 10 messages and not 500.  I can 
honestly say that I would have probably left the list had I not been 
able to go to digest mode.  If I am particularly busy and just don't 
have time to read the digest message, I just delete one message (very 
rarely do I do this since I am afraid I will miss something.)

What do I see as disadvantages?
If I want to print a particular message and not the whole digest 
message, I need to block it, paste it to a word processing document and 
then print it.  Not a real problem but it is an extra step.  I 
obviously don't save as many vanagon e-mail messages as I used to 
since each mail message may include 50 messages.  However, I can always 
go to the vanagon archives if I need to look at old messages.  
Sometimes it would be an advantage to see messages as soon as they are 
sent out and not at the end of the day.  For example, if someone ever 
posts a message that they have a brand new camper tent for sale for
$100, it will be long gone by the time I receive the digest mode at the 
end of the day. 

Overall opinion?
I can now have all vanagon messages sent to a separate folder if I 
want to but I prefer to just receive one message a day.  
Psychologically, there is something to be said for receiving one 
message instead of 50.  A colleague of mine subscribed to the list and 
unsubscribed because of the number of messages coming his way.  Had he 
gone to digest mode, I believe he would still be on the list.

Hope this helps,

Harold 

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Harold Teer
Department of Marketing
James Madison University
Phone (540)568-3049   FAX (540)568-2754
teerhb@jmu.edu