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[OM] as a digest user - text vs html

Subject: [OM] as a digest user - text vs html
From: "Alan Wayman" <abw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2003 19:11:18 +1000
Hi All, being a fanatical follower of the list (and a closet zuikoholic) who
hasn't got much to say because it all gets said better by you guys (mostly),
this thread has fired up the fading hormones
>When a digest is offered as a courtesy
sorry, but digest form is an integral part of the email system that goes all
the way back to pre-internet bulletin boards, every news/discussion group
I've ever subscribed to has provided the option
> to people who really think it might be better, it is probably not nice
> for them to continually complain about it.
Until now I have never complained of scrolling through pages and pages of
repeat messages because people don't have the courtesy to edit out all the
text they are NOT responding to. Sometimes this can lead to 2/3 of the
digest containing the same half dozen posts
>I have never graduated to
> broadband and have used both digest and normal forms of this list with
> a dial up connection.
In my part of the world (not USA) broadband is not an option, and the
dial-up speed is crappy at the best of times, but I still love my OMs and
want to learn more
>I can not imagine why anyone would use the digest
> unless they just can not be bothered to make the settings in their
> email client and would prefer others to optimize their viewing
> experience for them. Then I wonder why they advertise the fact.
I subscribe to the digest option in many forums, not just this one, because
it's generally easier to manage a lesser number of files, and to scroll
through one long post instead of dozens. It's interesting that this problem
rarely crops up anywhere else. Advertise the fact? Mentioning what should be
a simple problem is all ...

I reject html based email for a number of reasons that include
(a) reducing the number of people able to participate because of economic or
regional issues (slow/old machines, software, different operating systems,
bad service provision etc)
(b) html can carry virus codes - text can't
(c) I'm interested in the message, not the presentation
(d) text is the only truly universal means of communication
(e) it's faster
And finally, what about some statistics? How many digest subscribers are
there? What is the membership of the list, and how many actually contribute?

Alan




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