On Mon, 18 Nov 2002 11:59:59 -0600, Winship <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>I've asked about this before.  Why, if one totally deletes an item from the
>digest, is it still listed in the digest "index", why is the listing not
>automatically deleted?  Is there a way to get rid of the listing of the
>deleted item?  If not, why not?

Because the 'index' you refer to actually comes from a separate file
(maintainted by LISTSERV) of subject lines, so LISTSERV knows how many msgs
there are for a particular Subject: line when it creates the actual Digest.

This file is called listname.subjects.  I don't know if you can GET it
(I've never tried), but you would have to edit it along with the
listname.DIGEST.  I'm required to point out we don't recommend this anyway.

If I ever have to edit a digest, I don't remove a message.  I'll remove the
message body, and insert a note about 'removed by Editor', leaving the
message header (and the 'index') intact.

You are quite right the list must be on HOLD while you do this so no new
messages can come through.