[Enigmail] SNR and tilting at windmills; maybe more noise than signal

[John Clizbe]

Phil Stracchino wrote:
> MurrayDavis wrote:
> | <short suggestion>
> [snip, digest testing list, yadda]
> | Others who welcome giving a hand
> | to the new users would subscribe to the digest version of enigmailtest.
> | The enigmailtest digest would only be sent to the those enigmail mailing
> | list participants who elect to receive the digest. So, help would be
> | available, but the process of helping would have a low SNR.
> | </short suggestion>
> 
> The process of testing and helping would also be very *slow*, with
> probably a 12-hour average turnaround time.  The idea of a separate test
> list (or in general, of one list for testing and one for discussion) is
> not, in itself, a bad one; but the test list, IMHO, should NOT be a
> digest-only list.

It doesn't even make sense to offer it in digest form. See Below.

> (In fact, I'm not convinced a digest of the testing list would be useful
> at all.  But then, honesty bids me disclaim that I think mailing-list
> digests are a bad idea in the first place for 99% of purposes.  They
> delay list traffic, make it difficult or impossible to follow threads,
> and in general have multiple undesirable side-effects.)

It wouldn't. A digest would be counter-productive to the very help trying to be
given.

I've only seen one MUA, mutt, that handles verification of signatures in a list
digest form. I'm not saying that there may not be more, but whether there is or
isn't is not germaine to the discussion. Enigmail is for Thunderbird/Seamonkey
and message verification in a digest will be quite troublesome.

Two: replying to digests is a mess. From what I've seen of replies from folks
who receive digests, we'd have subject lines similar to,

    "RE: [Enigmail] Daily Digest, Vol nn, No. xx"

Real useful, that... ain't it? Add to the the neophyte propensity of quoting the
original in full and we have a support nightmare likely to drive away the folks
most likely to offer assistance.

I just don't see digests as a helpful option.

-- 
John P. Clizbe                      Inet:   John (a) Mozilla-Enigmail.org
You can't spell fiasco without SCO. PGP/GPG KeyID: 0x608D2A10/0x18BB373A
"what's the key to success?"        / "two words: good decisions."
"what's the key to good decisions?" /  "one word: experience."
"how do i get experience?"          / "two words: bad decisions."

"Just how do the residents of Haiku, Hawai'i hold conversations?"

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