A periodICal collection of messages whICh have been posted to a newsgroup or mailing list. A digest is prepared by a moderator who selects artICles from the group or list, formats them and adds a contents list. The digest is then either mailed to an alternative mailing list or posted to an alternative newsgroup. Some news readers and electronIC mail programs provide commands to "undigestify" a digest, i.e. to split it up into individual artICles whICh may then be read and saved or discarded separately.