TMG-L Archives

Archiver > TMG > 2006-01 > 1136167019


From: Lee Hoffman <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] Best way to manage/read TMG-L on AOL dialup?
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2006 20:56:59 -0500
References: <LPBBJNIOBJEJOGJFMDGJOEHMJGAB.ddburghart@cox.net>
In-Reply-To: <LPBBJNIOBJEJOGJFMDGJOEHMJGAB.ddburghart@cox.net>


DeAnna Burghart wrote:
>With great thanks to BobV and WG's "share TMG for half price" promo (and of
>course liberal use of the demo as a comparison to her current program
><winks>), I just managed to hook my Mom on TMG. :) I've drop shipped the
>program to her, and I'm going to loan her my copy of GTMOOTMG indefinitely.
>I've pointed her to Terry's articles as a good starter place as well.
>Eventually, I'd like to orient her to the list (too much at the moment) but
>she is limited to AOL on dialup, and we all know what list traffic can be
>like. For those of you in similar situations, how have you managed the list
>traffic and the messages?

Keep in mind that there are three ways that anyone can subscribe to the TMG
mailing list: and receive messages:
-- Mail mode -- called TMG-L for short
-- Digest mode -- called TMG-D
-- Index mode -- called TMG-I

TMG-L is the basic mode that most are familiar with where each message
received by the list server is sent to each subscriber. So if 200 messages
are posted to the list each day then each TMG-L subscriber received 200
separate messages.

TMG-D acts as a buffer for its subscribers in that messages are accumulated
until the total size is greater than a set amount or a given time is past
(whichever is first). Then a single message is sent as a digest which
includes all messages received since the last digest. Each digest has a
"table of contents" followed by each listed message. The result is that
instead of 200 separate messages, the subscriber receives from 1 to maybe a
dozen or so large messages. The subscriber can then read all the messages
or just those of interest as noted in the "table of contents".

TMG-I is just what it implies, an index of all messages posted to the list
during the prior 24 hours from midnight to midnight (New York
time). Similar in ways to the a combination of all the "table of
contents" for the day's digest, the index message does not actually contain
any messages. The subscriber would then review the index for
messages. The index includes information the subscriber can use to have
specific messages sent to them. Thus the subscriber would send a message
back to the list server asking for the message of interest and those
messages would be sent just like they had been sent as if subscribed to the
mail mode (e.g., TMG-L).

Of course, as others have noted, review through the Archives either online
or via RSS is another way. In my opinion, TMG-L (at 25 to 200 messages per
day) can be a bit much to new computer users. On the other hand, trying to
read messages on-line or via RSS can be a bit much for dial-up (RSS is
somewhat better). My recommendation for a new user on dial-up would be
Digest mode initially.

I suggest scanning each message. Don't try to understand each message as
some (many? most?) will be gibberish at first. But the scanning will after
a few days start filtering through and begin to let one begin to understand
what some of the terms that we toss about mean. As one begins to
understand the terms (a few days to a couple of weeks) and at least some of
the messages are starting to make some sense then one can make the decision
to stay with the Digest mode or go with the Index mode. By this time, one
will have a better understanding of which messages are of interest and
which are not. Or one may decide to go with RSS or on-line Archives
reading or even mail mode.

Of course, the speed at which TMG messages are comprehendible depends to
some extent on how much time the new user spends getting used to the
computer and, of course, TMG. <g> If one is like a friend of mine and
turns on the computer about once a month then it is going to take a good
while. But if they get on the computer daily for an hour or so (maybe more
at first) then the learning cure will decrease rapidly.

Hope this helps -

Lee Hoffman/KY
TMG Tips: <http://www.tmgtips.com>;
My website: <http://www.tmgtips.com/lhoffman>;
A user of the best genealogy program, The Master Genealogist (TMG)


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