[Air-l] Writers and responders to this list need to understand readability

[jeremy hunsinger]

Readability is actually a somewhat important point.  In the case of 
e-mail lists, and I'm on quite a few, that readability depends greatly 
on the ability and tools that the individual reader has available.  I 
read the list generally through 3 different clients, Apple Mail, 
Netscape Mail, and Pine.  (I also occasionally look at the archives.) 
 For me, the only problematic instance is mime encoding or html in Pine. 
 Everything else is very clear, and readable.  Though certainly there is 
some social engineering that could make it more readable for some 
groups, i tend to think that the primary problem may be technological, 
not social.    

I want to point out that if you are subscribed in digest mode  that you 
will have a significantly different user experience with the list.  This 
should be obvious, but most people seem to think that their user 
experience is univeral.  The user experience is very much dependent on 
the list format that you choose, normal, digest, or nomail.  Digest mode 
will always be much less readable than normal individual email.  For 
instance, in digest mode you have have no strong breaks between 
messages, this hinders readability.  You also have to deal with material 
outside of thread order, and have to deal with it in chronological 
order.  This is not always the easiest way to read it.  I think there 
are quite a few reasons to claim that digests are not always a good 
option if you are doing anything other than archiving the list. 
 However, people persist in using them, which is their choice.  I am 
wary when people make claims upon others based on some option that they 
have chose.  It isn't a bad thing to make claims as to what others 
should do, don't get me wrong, but for me, I'd like people to first try 
different user experiences to see if they resolve the problem before 
asking others to solve it by changing their habits, though arguably 
quite a few email habits do need changed:)  

IOW, for everyone, digest mode is optional, it is not a primary format 
of this list software.   If digest is causing some problems, I usually 
suggest one of two options:

An individual may set their account to nomail and read the postings from 
the archives.  They can still send mail to the list, but receive none.

An individual may unset their digest option and receive mail as a normal 
user, and use filters to put that mail into a directory where they can 
read it at their leisure.  This is what I do.

remember list control is available to you via the webpage at: 
http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l

if you need help with any technical problems, let me know, I'm happy to 
try to help.



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jeremy hunsinger		http://www.cddc.vt.edu/jeremy
cddc/political science		http://www.cddc.vt.edu
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