CNAV allows for the creation of four distinct types of digests:
Note that digests can receive messages in two ways: (1) via CNAV posting features and (2) via standard email. The largest distinctions between the digest security types listed above lie in how they handle postings submitted via email from outside of CNAV. These distinctions are important because the level of trust varies greatly. Digest items posted within CNAV can be authenticated beyond doubt because of the user authentication and security features built into CNAV. However, digest items posted via email cannot be accorded the same level of trust. The listed sender may have been spoofed; removing the level of trust inherent when users are held accountable for their postings.
With a normal digest, anyone can post to the digest. Messages can be posted within CNAV (from the My Digests channel of the Cool Stuff page). Messages can also be posted from outside of CNAV via email; the poster simply has to know the digest name.
Posted messages are sent to a holding area until CNAV executes its scheduled CRON job to aggregate those messages into the digest. While the messages are "on-hold", the digest owner of can delete any messages she feels are inappropriate. Owners may choose to regularly review messages to eliminate SPAM or to remove replies that cross the line between passionate discussion and flaming. However, the digest owner can only remove the messages; she cannot edit those messages. In addition, CNAV does not notify the digest owner when new messages are posted. If the owner wishes to review messages before aggregation, she needs to remember to do so on her own.
A monitored digest is exactly like a normal digest, with one major exception. When a user posts a message to a monitored digest, the owner of that digest receives a copy of the posting via email. However, the owner does not need to specifically approve the message. The email message simply provides a reminder mechanism to simplify deleting inappropriate messages. If the digest owner does nothing, the message will be added to the digest at the next scheduled aggregation of messages.
As with a normal digest, anyone can post to a monitored digest. Again, posted messages are sent to a holding area until CNAV executes its scheduled CRON job to aggregate those messages into the digest. While the messages are "on-hold", the digest owner of can delete any messages she feels are inappropriate. However, she cannot edit those messages.
High-level security type 1 digests
With a high-level security type 1 digest, only owners, editors, and members of the digest group can post messages. In addition, postings submitted via email and postings submitted via CNAV are treated differently. CNAV postings are sent directly to the digest. However, email postings are sent to the owner via email. To approve an email-posted message for inclusion in the digest, the owner must reply to the posting message.
When you receive a digest message of this type, you will note that the From: address in the email is NOT the return address of the message poster. Instead, you will see a From: line containing a series of numbers. Those numbers serve as the password to enable insertion of the message upon the owner's reply. If the digest owner does not reply to the message, the message is NOT inserter into the digest. In either case (the owner replies to or ignores the posting), the person who posted the message is NOT notified. Therefore, digest owners may wish to issue separate replies to posters via email, in particular when a digest posting is rejected.
Warning!
The numbers attached to digest entries of this type must remain secret. Disclosure of these numbers to a third-party may create a serious security breach in regard to this digest.
Another potential problem with high-level security digests (of type 1 or 2) occurs when a digest is owned by multiple people (or a group). If more than one person replies to a given posting message, a copy of that message will be inserted into the digest for each reply. Therefore, it is advisable to set clear guidelines on who is expected to reply to each type of message when multiple owners are assigned to a high-level security digest.
High-level security type 2 digests
A high-level security type 2 digest is identical to a high-level security type 1 digest with the exception that only owners and editors of the digest group can post messages. In this type of digest, members are only allowed to read the posted messages.