Too Much Information!!!

...and how to control it

We must control our volume to allow everyone to be heard. -- True in drumming. True in life!

My primary goal with these community networks is to provide an effective way to let you know what other's in your area are doing that might interest you. Even when the information interests you greatly, too much information (TMI!) can be overwhelming and therefore useless. I've understood this since I first started these lists. In fact, I provide seperate lists for this very reason. Now these networks have each grown to the point that we need further control in order for many of us to remain connected in a meaningful way.

The following are several options which will help you control "the volume" without giving up on listening...

Automatically filing any list email out of your inbox and into its own folder
This is definitely the best option (and the one I use) because it allows you to continue recieving each announcement. Since the messages aren't combined in a digest, you can still reply directly to the author / organizer with any questions you have. Plus, with most email software you add filters which keep particular announcements which may interest you most in your Inbox. This is great if you're most interested in events with keywords like "Colorado Springs", "Springs", and "Manitou" or maybe "African", "Cuban", "Tribal". Details...

Recieving Daily Digests rather than individual announcements
Digests work by collecting an entire day's worth of messages and sending them out in one long message each day. YahooGroups supports this feature. However, you may miss those last minute announcements (like, "Oops, wrong address for tonight!") and scanning through one long list of announcements can be more work than scanning all the Subject lines individually. Really, I don't recommend this option.

Monthly and Weekly Summaries with iCalendar attachments (Coming soon)
I am working hard trying to develop a way to send out occasional summaries of all the announcements received and all the events appearing on the calendar for each week / month. When this is ready, I will give users the option to switch to "Special Announcement Only" mode where they can stop receiving each message and reminder and simply get these summaries. I am also hoping to include each event as a special attachment called an iCalendar file. These files are opened directly in your own calendar program where they can be conveniently saved with optional reminders. Online sample...

Online message archives and search filters
As a last resort, if you really just can't handle one more email... or if you don't have email... you can always visit this website which links directly to each list's archive of announcements. You can also search the entire archive for just those announcements which contain keywords that interest you. You may miss some special events if you don't visit very often or if they don't exactly match the keywords you use. I do, however, recommend this option for folks who are just visiting and want to plug in while in town.