[CentOS] Threading and CentOS mailing list digest

David G. Miller dave at davenjudy.org
Sat Apr 18 17:18:21 UTC 2009


Kai Schaetzl <maillists at ...> writes:

> 
> David G. Miller wrote on Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:39:50 -0600:
> 
> > What is happening is I get the CentOS mailing list in digest form.
> 
> Ah, that explains it. Other people usually just reply to the digest (which 
> then creates a new thread with "Digest" in the subject) or add a note that 
> they replied to a digest.
> 
> > Giving up 
> > getting the list traffic in digest form is not acceptable.
> 
> I'm trying to understand what you mean by this statement. 

<SNIP>
> 
> Anyway, do as you like, but it might be helpful, if you somehow indicate 
> you reply to a digest. Then one doesn't have to guess why you reply to the 
> wrong message.
> 
> Kai
> 

I just like getting the list in text digest form.  The MIME format might work
well on a list with less traffic but it is pretty unwieldy on a list with this
much traffic when I tried it.

I have a number of old habits regarding how I use e-mail and getting the list in
digest form fits better with these habits than your suggestions.  I appreciate
the suggestions but I'm really quite happy getting the list just once a day in
digest form rather than have a steady stream of e-mails with intermittent
flurries of activity that comes with getting the e-mails individually.  

There are also a number of benefits to letting some topics "settle out" before I
get a chance to see them or respond that I won't go into at this point.  One I
will point out that you will still need to contend with is as follows.  People
(like me) who read the digest frequently are able to take a step back from some
of the discussions and bring together multiple responses and several otherwise
diverging threads.  The threaded message view is based on the sometimes false
assumption that once threads diverge they cannot later merge.  Several times I
have ended up consolidating replies to several divergent threads because that's
where "the answer" was to be found.  The threaded view of a discussion may be a
nice way of organizing the elements of the discussion but it doesn't necessarily
reflect the object of the discussion which is to find an answer.

One of the other responders pointed me to Gmane as a way to reply to individual
postings.  I'm using Gmane to compose this and will attempt to continue using it
in the future (I've been known to forget such things).  Gmane appears to fit my
criteria of not imposing any  significant additional effort while letting me
continue to enjoy the list in digest form.

Cheers,
Dave




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