And Nils said:
"Habit I guess. I PgDn through the stuff I'm not interested
in faster than I delete stuff, while still being able to
keep half an eye on the messages, in case there is something
that catches my eye. Also, twenty separate messages is much more stressful than a
single digest."
Sounds a like a difference in working environment to me. Select a single message (whether to delete or read): one mouse-click. Page down past message not interested in: for me, multiple mouse-clicks, plus it isn't as easy to see where the next message starts. (No, given plain text as a medium, I can't think of any way of making it easier).
Multiple mouse-clicks hurt more than single ones. I don't often find a "large" number of emails stressful (the day I found over 8000 had arrived overnight was a little perturbing). Nils and I clearly have different working enviroments. (shrug) Tastes differ: and a good job too, or there would be a terrible shortage of haggis.
> Most conversations can be summarised quite briefly. The blow by blow is
> irrelevant. See my post that started this thread for an adequate example.
Ermmm... right, over to the archives and try to follow the threading. Yes, I see what you mean. The fine art of precis. Which in most on-line communities would not have a hope of working: but given the general standard of literacy here, may well be the Way Ahead.
> The time of the digest is, arbitrarily, noon UK time each day. Why? Because
> that was the default in the software. If someone has a really, really good
> reason for me to change it, I will.
Can't think of one, myself. Though I note that in the past it has arrived mid-morning, and today, I got two!
> I would note that no one is forcing anyone to read the digest when it
> arrives.
You're kidding?
You think that if I look in my inbox come lunchtime/coffee break, and there's a GD in
there, I'll be able to stop myself from reading it???
> MIME is a standard for delivering multiple documents in a single e-mail
> message. It has a bad reputation due to its normal use for e-mailing HTML
> spam, but can be very useful for things like digests.
IF you get the time (yes, big IF, I know), putting some explanation like this on the options page might be nice? No rush.
> Now if I didn't know that Jane had been here for many, many years I would
> assume this came from someone who had never seen the Digest. "polite
> references"? Surely some mistake?
No. You obviously don't use Usenet. The GD is incredibly polite, and always has been. So are all the Glorantha-related lists and groups I've ever been involved with. I just took a quick skim through rec.games.frp.dnd (yes, heresy, I know, but I play that too when forced) and my memory of the sort of replies in there was quite correct. I wondered about quoting a selection here as samples, but no. Let's just say that I think most of us had passed that stage of refutation before we got out of junior school. And outside the Gloranthan community, I'm afraid that is the norm.
> On the digest you can have flame wars.
But we don't. (Nor do they occur on the Yahoo lists).
> You can say "fuck".
But we don't. (Nor on the Yahoo lists).
> This place is not a library. This place is a debating chamber.
True; I think "library" was being used in the LM sense of the word (a small university rather than a means of borrowing books).
> Anything is
> allowed, any source, any idea, any specualtion. It is, in short, exactly
> what Jane wants, except we have one or two rules she dislikes.
No, you don't. You have a posting frequency and format that was set up many years ago, and has not moved on with the enormous change in internet/email access since. I find this frustrating. The (lack of) rules is not a problem in the slightest.
> And I notice that people were very happy to use this place for the purposes
> described when there was not another list, with other purposes and other
> rules...
Back in the days when internet access was slow, and cost money per second, when email was down-loaded once a day and read off line (unless you went all extravagant and up/downloaded several times in an evening because you were so excited about the wonderful discussion you were having with people on the other side of the world)
The Yahoo/egroups type environments have only become viable recently. But now they're here. Yes, when this speed was the fastest around, that was what we used. But when we can go faster.... well, we go faster. Because we can, and it's there. And Glorantha is just far too exciting to wait for!
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End of Glorantha Digest
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