optcomlist

[Robert Greenberg]

Is there anyone out there familiar with the Optcomlist e-mailed newsletter? I subscribed recently (don't remember how I learned about it) and found it to be the most frustrating experience I've had on the internet! There's lots of good stuff there but you have to scroll endless inches of gibberish to find something of interest and then you find it repeated ad nauseum. If there is some way to use this site efficiently I'd sure appreciate the tip.

 

[Richard Hom]

Dear Dr. Greenberg,

I feel the best way to handle Optcomlist is to use a filter on your email client software. You can filter by subject line so that you can derive the best value from this list.

If you separate fhis email from all others, it's much easier to handle. Expect upwards of 50 - 75 email messages per day.

Regards,

Originally posted by Robert Greenberg
Is there anyone out there familiar with the Optcomlist e-mailed newsletter?

 

[Paul Farkas]

Thank our Web master

When www.seniordoc.org was designed, Docwolf our web master, insisted that the Forum System with strict guidelines was the way to keep discussions organized.

When it comes to internet savvy, you can take his opinions to the bank. He has been 100% on target.

On the other hand the Administrator, well...

From your Administrator who is still learning about this new fangled innovation!

 

[Keith E. Watson]

Originally posted by Robert Greenberg
Is there anyone out there familiar with the Optcomlist e-mailed newsletter? I subscribed recently (don't remember how I learned about it) and found it to be the most frustrating experience I've had on the internet! There's lots of good stuff there but you have to scroll endless inches of gibberish to find something of interest and then you find it repeated ad nauseum. If there is some way to use this site efficiently I'd sure appreciate the tip.

Most email clients allow you to sort by subject. Once you have filtered out the optcom list emails from your other emails as Dr. Hom suggests, click on "subject" to sort them. Once they are grouped together like this, it's fairly easy to scroll through the emails that interest you (in other words, abandon the notion to look at the list by date--it makes it rather difficult to decifer).

After you have found the emails that interest you, delete the rest. You can always peruse the emails later since they are archived weekly (in fact, you will have to delete old emails at some point or your inbox will overflow).

 

[James Jordan]

The best way (of course in my opinion) is to view their history format instead of receiving any of the emails (you get the latest posts this way also).

That way you can easily see the the whole page of subjects and then select and read the ones you're interested in. No email filtering figuring out or flooding with emails.

Let me know if you want to get to this "history" option.

Jamie

 

[Robert Greenberg]

None of the suggestions I got really addressed the problem I have. What some friends, far more computer savvy than I, say is that the optcomlist is sent in HTML and for my purposes should be text. I haven't been able to get their attentiion to change it.
Have any of you looked at that mailing?

 

[Brent Allen]

Robert,
Did you perhaps subscribe to the e-mail digest form of Optcomlist? If so, this may be your problem. None of the above suggestions will help you if it arrives as one big e-mail rather than as seperate messages. Like Richard, I use filters to seperate messages in to topics (and to put anything labeled Optcom in to its own folder outside of my regular inbox). I find that I can peruse through 100 e-mails in about 15 minutes, or less if I don't find the topics of any interest. Then just hit select all and delete when you are done so that when you get your next batch you don't have to scroll though them.
As for receiving it in HTML versus text, I believe that you need to change the setting on your e-mail client to display just plain text and then HTML will be ignored. I don't believe that this is necessary as there is very little HTML sent via optcomlist anyway.
I personally love Optcomlist (sorry Paul) but it is not for everyone.

Brent Allen

 

[Keith E. Watson]

I have enjoyed the optcom list since I joined about a month ago. There's a lot of information from many experienced optometrists. I especially like the billing ones since this area is such a mystery to most people. I save their posts in a file called "optcom suggestions."

It's a little more hostile though--maybe the lack of smiley faces prevents proper expression.

I think the email thing is kinda dumb but there's nothing I can do about it, so it's here to stay. As I say, I think using Outlook Express makes it easy to read. Filter on "[optcomlist]" into a special file. Click on "subject" at the top so it's sorted by subject. It's just that easy. If you then click on "received," it comes out sorted by date and you can select all the old posts and delete them.

 

[Paul Farkas]

The essence of the Internet

Brent you said...

"I personally love Optcomlist (sorry Paul) but it is not for everyone."

The more Optometric Web sites the better. I'm delighted that ODs look to a variety of sites for information, conversation and consolation. Better still I'd be happier if ODs were so busy in practice, that there was little time to visit so many sites.

The Optcom list is the oldest Optometric Web site around. It is paid for by SECO but hopefully is free wheeling. It would give me great pleasure to share some topics. When I attempted to do this last year on their moribund Forum, I was told that the SECO Board forbids any competative Web site to be mentioned.

To my mind that goes against the spirit of the Internet and not in the best interest of Optometry. I hope one day they will see that their policy was counterproductive and maybe will change.

As far as I'm concerned, any new Optometric Web site is welcome and we'll certainly publicize it on www.seniordoc.org.

 

[Paul Farkas]

Welcome Brad

www.seniordoc.org was designed to be so simple that even a technophobe, such as myself, can get around. So log on to the Private Forums and feel free to get into the conversation.

New views are welcome.