Long postings on AFRO-NETS (7)
------------------------------
Dear Dieter,
I subscribe to AFRO-NETS DIGEST, which I find more convenient for
reading and filing: several messages are sent in one message, are al-
ways of the same size (about 30K) and include a table of contents. It
is easy to skip reading whole or parts of each Digest by looking at
the table of contents.
You seem to conclude the discussion about Claudio's contributions
when subscribers to the Digest had the first chance to read the
original message and the other comments!
I would like to know more about subscribers' expectations (and frus-
trations) with regard to e-mail and on-line services because I sus-
pect that the complaint had something to do with technical problems
to retrieve messages and to find after downloading that this particu-
lar one was of no interest at all.
In any location in Africa I have been in the last 3 years I have al-
ways accessed the respective e-mail systems and I know how frustrat-
ing in reality it sometimes is. You often want to avoid unnecessary
messages.
Still very few providers offer the IMAP protocol and IMAP servers
where you can see messages before you download them, probably most
subscribers will use POP3 mail systems where you have to download all
messages and only then could delete messages you do not want to read.
Some of the respondents have offered to use mail "filters": in Net-
scape Messenger you can go to "Edit / Message Filters...." and could
configure: " if any incoming message contains 'Claudio' as a sender
then 'delete'". I have never used such filters but I suspect the fil-
ters delete AFTER they have downloaded the message - or not? If yes
it does not reduce downloading time. Maybe you know the technical de-
tails.
A short comment on the CONTENTS of AFRO-NETS: I file the complete
messages in one folder for future reference but in practice I rarely
refer back to older issues. Additionally I file interesting web ad-
dresses for future use in one document where I retrieve web sites
with the "Find" command later on - quite often. One exception are the
contributions from Claudio which I file separately because they are
food for thought and I enjoy reading them for example when I am trav-
elling.
Continue your good work!
Best regards,
Ulrich
--
Dr. U. Laukamm-Josten
PHC Public Health Consult GmbH
Windscheidstr. 21
10627 Berlin, Germany
Videoconference: ISDN H.320
Tel: 49-30-327-011-76
Fax: 49-30-327-011-77
mailto:info@publichealthconsult.de
http://www.publichealthconsult.de
--
[From the Moderator:
Sorry for closing the discussion before our 80 subscribers to the
AFRO-NETS Digest had a chance to voice their views.
If you would like to subscribe to the Digest send an e-mail to:
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As an example today's digest's table of contents:
Afro-nets Digest Wednesday, 10 November 1999 Volume 99: Number 135
In this issue:
AFRO-NETS> Long postings on AFRO-NETS
AFRO-NETS> Long postings on AFRO-NETS (2)
AFRO-NETS> Health Informatics Research in Zimbabwe
AFRO-NETS> Long postings on AFRO-NETS (3)
AFRO-NETS> RFI: Assistance to Research Proposal
AFRO-NETS> Long postings on AFRO-NETS (4)
AFRO-NETS> HELINA 99 programme online
AFRO-NETS> Long postings on AFRO-NETS (5)
AFRO-NETS> Statement of the SADC Health Ministers' Meeting
See the end of the digest for information on how to retrieve back is-
sues.
--
Regarding IMAP and POP3 protocols - most mail clients working with
POP3 protocol allow to download the mail headers first and then to
decide whether to retrieve the whole message or delete it from the
server.
Filters delete messages only after the download.
D.N. Mod.]
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