A listserv can produce quite a bit of email.  The default setting for new accounts is to receive mail as it is posted to the listserv, allowing the listserv to "push" information to you so you do not have to take steps to "pull" the information from a web location.  Also, the default setting for list message sharing is to send messages and replies to all members to insure a shared community of knowledge.  These settings can cause the listserv to generate quite a bit of traffic in your email inboxes.

This is a recommendation on how to help manage your listserv messages.  It will require adding a step to your listserv message reading process, but it will greatly cut down on the number of individual emails you will receive.  For those of you using the default setting and wishing to limit the number of messages you receive, I recommend changing your listserv setting from the default to "Index" and using your Web browser to view messages.

Here's how it will work.  With the Index setting, you will receive 1 message per day with all the subject lines from the messages posted that day.  You will still send messages to the listserv using your email by addressing them to yourlistname@listserv.unc.edu.

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The listserv offers several options for membership setting; here are the options and limitations of each:

digest: receive one daily message with all contributions for the day (sounds good in theory, but often the one message is a jumble to read because of either a large number of messages or html code appearing around the main text of a message) -- not recommended

mimedigest: receive one daily message with all contributions for the day in mime format (even more of a mess to read than the digest version) -- not recommended

index: one daily message with the subject lines of the messages sent that day (choose this setting and bookmark http://lists.unc.edu/read/?forum=ncwater and you can get the subject lines pushed to you then go to the Web and pull any message you would like to read; this will SIGNIFICANTLY decrease your email traffic) -- RECOMMENDED

nomail: receive no mail from the list (this choice requires you to go to the Web all the time to see messages posted, requiring you to "pull" the information without any kind of automatic prompt) -- not recommended.