Re: Isn't it time for a newsgroup^H^H^H^H digest?

["Richard C. Thrapp" <richardt owlnet rice edu>]

On Tue, 30 Mar 1999, Quantum Seep wrote:

> >From a fellow Owl (I am a Rice alumnus),
> 
> I would like to comment that I find a mailing list much more convenient
> than a digest.  With a mailing list, I can scan all the subject headers
> and read what I want to read.  With a digest, I get the same amount of
> mail but it's difficult to wade through.  With a mailing list, I could
> thread the messages, filter in the ones I want to see, or filter out those
> I don't want.
>   I don't do all that at the moment.   But I do at least can old messages.
> I haven't read this mailing list in a month, and I only have a few
> messages from today.  The solution is simple.  Run a cron job that uses
> procmail to filter out old messages.  It keeps messages I have read, as
> well as messages which are addressed from or to myself.  It deletes all
> but the N most recent unread messages, where I have set N to about 50.
>   Although I'm not as experienced with automating newsgroup retrieval, I'm
> sure it can be done with those, too.  The digest idea seems to defeat the
> purpose, however.
[snip]

I don't think adding methods of retrieval would make the old ones go away.
Afterall, there are programs that can maintain a link between a mailing
list and a newsgroup.  A digest can be sent to those who would rather have
one mail per day than the flood from the list, but the list would continue
anyway.  Newsgroups would just offer faster turn-around than digests and
don't clutter up my mailbox. I'm not in any way suggesting that they
replace this mailing list.  They could just be added as an interface.

As for me, I just have one e-mail address, and I can't get anymore.  I
also can't filter on the Rice side because they have some policy about
mucking with mail with unauthorized programs.  Having 70 gnome messages
greet me in the morning when I'm trying to read school or work related
e-mail or do work/school-work is distracting.  I don't really like the
digest solution, either.  I like having fast turn-around on my messages
when I actually have time to work with gnome (about 2-4 hours a week
between school and work currently .. now spent hitting the 'd' key in
pine).

I also know of several others who refuse to subscribe to a mailing list
but are very interested in gnome and would be more than willing to follow
a newsgroup.

I missed most of the earlier discussion on newsgroups earlier, so I
apologize to everyone if I'm repeating what has already been said, but I
think this list could benefit greatly from having multiple interfaces.
(yeah, yeah, I know ... I'll check the archives)

-- Richard Thrapp