A good few of our number have left us in recent months, citing either
the number or cumulative length of messages. This is a great pity,
since most of these fellow-travellers (apologies to any ex red-bashers
out there!!) would probably have preferred to remain with us if they had
the free time to handle the message volume. I offer two remedies
besides the obvious (no personal messages, trading, ads, junk mail,
flaming, etc....),in the hopes that they may prevent some future
defections:
1) The "digest " option: Anyone who does not want to recieve large #s
of messages throughout the day, can simple send the instruction :
Digest conch-l (nothing more) to the [log in to unmask] address.
They will then recieve only one Conch-l message each day, containing
all the messages sent the previous day. It downloads quickly, and it is
a simple matter to scroll past anything one does not wish to read (or
re-read and re-read and re-read, as per the #2 suggestion, below). The
savings in time and "hassle-factor" are considerable!!
2) Partial quotes: It is usually rather unnessessary to quote the
complete and often lengthy text of the message one is responding to!
How often has a long messsage been served up verbatum to our membership
3, 4, or even 5 times in a single day? My guess is that many people do
not realize that it is possible to edit their quotes, so as to include
only the portion relevant to the reply- which is often only a line or
two. I know some e-programs tell you in no uncertain terms NOT to edit
automatic quotes, but trust me, your computer will not self-destruct if
you do. If only the relevant messages or portions of messages were
quoted, the total volume of conch-l related mail could be reduced QUITE
considerably, (without detracting in any manner from the quality of the
experience!), some poor souls stuck with 14.4k modems will no doubt be
eternally grateful, and the volume of unfortunate exits would hopefully
slow to a trickle.
-Ross M.
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