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From: fair@styx.UUCP (Erik E. Fair)
Newsgroups: net.news
Subject: Re: Digests (Actually using rn and digests)
Message-ID: <20662@styx.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 19-May-86 00:26:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: styx.20662
Posted: Mon May 19 00:26:48 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 20-May-86 06:58:51 EDT
References: <1143@bunker.UUCP> <6912@boring.UUCP>
Organization: Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, Livermore, CA
Lines: 36
Keywords: digest, rn
Summary: Bravo! Let your voices be heard where it counts.

As the gateway maintainer for the mod groups coming from the ARPA
Internet, I applaud the sentiments being expressing in opposition to
digests on the USENET. Historically digests were a stopgap measure to
prevent the mailers on the internet from being inundated by great
volumes of individual messages on the large mailing lists (e.g.
SF-LOVERS, HUMAN-NETS). A form of message batching, really. They
continue to serve this purpose admirably on the internet, however, as
noted here, they make no sense at all on the USENET because we do
message batching at the transport level.

So how can YOU join the fight against digests? Well, when I last
approached the moderators of the various digested mailing lists on the
internet, I was almost universally turned down. Exactly two moderators
listened and acted on what I told them: Dr. Kenneth Laws of the AILIST
(mod.ai), and Jon Solomon of the TELECOM digest (mod.telecom). I got
the impression that the uncooperative moderators didn't believe me when
I told them that I represented a community of thousands of readers
whose software is vastly better suited to individual messages, rather
than digests.

What YOU can do is mail a note to the moderator of the digested groups
that you read, urging him or her to send the individual messages to the
gateway at ucbvax.berkeley.edu (headers intact), rather than the
digested form. I stand ready to help them with the conversion as
necessary. If many of you respond in this manner, perhaps there will
be a change. Perhaps there will come a day when digests are long
forgotten, and we all have better tools to deal with the rapidly
increasing volumes of our worldwide network...

	write your moderator! spread the word! down with digests!

	Erik E. Fair	ucbvax!fair	fair@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu

P.S.    There is a special place on the other side of the river for
	which my posting site is named for those moderators in USENET
	land that use digests. They should know better.