Re: Should we drop the digest? No.

[Wallace White <wallace@remdesign.com>]

Jason Palmer wrote:

> Premature posting without reading the digests might attribute to some
> redundant posts... but wouldn't the same happen to those who have 140
> posts stacked up in the 'inbox'?

First, I don't think the digest is the sole cause of lots of people
responding to the same initial message. I don't receive direct list
messages until at least an hour after they're written. It's true that
the time lag of the digest is greater.

The big difference is that those of us getting the direct list can
thread and otherwise sort all our messages. In the digest, you read a
message and then just keep scrolling down to find responses, or you go
to the index at the top of each digest. In the direct list, you get all
of the replies right next to each other.

It's also just a ton easier to visually scan a folder of messages,
reading those you're interested in, than to read one long message. You
avoid all the other irritations you mentioned, too (long sigs, long
quoted replies, mime...).

The digest certainly has its place--for those without web access or a
E-mail filtering system that they can and know how to set up. But for
everyone who can filter, I whole-heartedly encourage them to get the
direct list. It's really much easier to keep up with.

- Wallace
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