Should we drop the digest?

[Mike Arman <armanmik@n-jcenter.com>]

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater - the digest serves a valuable
function in that it "unfragments" the group's communication.

My work style is "blocks of time for specific tasks" as opposed to "jumping
back and forth to whatever yells loudest" (You can tell which side I'm
on!). I like the digests because I can take a ten minute chunk of time and
pay proper attention to it - I prefer not to get constant non-business
related e-mail messages throughout the day because I HAVE TO check each
incoming message for any that might be business related and therefore take
precedence. With the digest, I get a block of non-business related e-mails
all in one chunk, and can deal with it when I have time.

I also get cranky about being interrupted by phone calls when I'm trying to
do some work - I don't want to have more interruptions along the lines of
"You have new e-mail!!"  - fine (actually "so what?"), but it WILL wait
until it is convenient for ME, not when it just happens to arrive.

I may be a curmudgeon sometimes, but I do enjoy eating my lunch and dinner
without being bothered by phone solicitors, etc. (My solution to this is to
shut off the ringer and simply not answer at all. The phone is there for my
convenience, not theirs. If it is important, they will call back. If it
isn't important, I didn't want to talk to them anyway, and ESPECIALLY not
while I'm eating lunch or dinner.). I find that barrages of e-mail
throughout the day are just as intrusive to me.

If you don't want the digest, just un****ribe to it. Personally, I like it.

Best Regards,

Mike Arman