Minimizing commercial on-line mail fees

[Dick Schomburg <73340.2533@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

To:     Barbara Patterson (et al)
From:   Dick Schomburg, 73340.2533@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Michele Sears recently noted that a number of us access this group (for a
fee) thru the email ports of commercial on-line services, and that the
inclusion of long-ish articles may not be appropriate, due to the possible
costs involved for us.

While her concern is appreciated, I myself would hate to miss valuable and
informative material on that basis. Some of our best communications
generated so far have also been among the longest ... yet I think that no
item has been more costly than (say) one Eldepryl tablet !!!

In any event, at least for those of us on CompuServe, two simple methods of
controlling incoming-email costs already exist:

[1]   We have the choice of ignoring (or deleting-without-reading) specific
items of "postage-due" mail (as from the Internet), in which case there is
no charge.  (The message subject and filesize are available as free clues
!!)

[2]   Any participant can activate the listserver "digest" feature, so that
the group's messages will be accumulated over a day or two and sent  to
him/her in a batch, which  is a saving over receiving numerous short
messages.  This is achieved by sending the message SET PARKINSN DIG to the
server address: LISTSERV@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx with the appropriate Internet
email preamble. I have found it to be effective.

CompuServe email rates for incoming Internet items are $0.15 for the first
7500 characters, and $0.05 for each additional 2500 characters. However,
each month we have a "free" allowance of $9.00 for such charges, and so we
may incur no additional costs whatever, depending on our individual level
of activity.

So my preference is to NOT propose message-size limitations, at least on
this basis. But Michele's thought is appreciated ...

Regards,  Dick

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To: John Cottingham <jcott@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>