mangoe@mimsy.UUCP (Charley Wingate) (04/20/87)
I continue to be puzzled because nobody has listed a property of digests which is really a function of the binding of the articles into one article. As far as I can tell, all of the supposed benefits alluded to thus far are really properties of moderation, possibly combined with well-contructed news reading programs. For example, Brent Chapman writes: >There are certainly digest that are much more than just a dump of the >moderators inbox every week. The example with which I'm most familiar >is the RISKS digest; Peter G. Neumann consistently does an excellent >job of moderating the discussions, keeping them on track, and killing >them when they begin to lose relevance (even if he does have an abhorrent >penchant for puns :-). This all has nothing to do with digesting at all. We have all the same things over in the (late) mod.religion.christian. In fact, while I like the content of the RISKS digest, the bundling of the articles is a real annoyance, because it defeats all of rn's searching and TOC functions. The one feature that digests can provide now that rn combined with good moderation can't is the ordering of a particular discussion. For me, this is outweighed by the difficulty I have in reading a digest in the order I wish to read it with rn. C. Wingate