Several people have asked me to add a feature to BulkRate to have it only send messages, or to only send messages and check your mailbox, instead of having BulkRate always send messages and get all unread messages.
My main resistance to this has been how to give the user this option without it getting in the way. For example, if there were a dialog that popped up every time you wanted to exchange mail, it would slow things down if you (like me), simply type command-shift-N to start a multiple exchange. If, on the other hand, it was a semi-permanent "Preferences"-type setting, you might forget you had BulkRate set to only send mail and be very surprised to find no new messages were retreived.
Fortunately, there is a way to have BulkRate sometimes only send mail, or only send mail and check the mailbox, and ignore all other conferences. The ironic thing is that this capability has been there since version 1.0 of BulkRate, but I just recently thought of how to do it. The entire trick is using multiple settings files for a single BBS.
Normally, you want BulkRate to send mail, check your mailbox, and get all new messages. So your "More host settings" for the settings file looks like this:
Conferences can be found in:
Home
Home:BulkRateToRead
If you wish BulkRate to only send messages, create another settings file for the BBS (actually, just modify the original file), and change "More host settings" to look like this:
Conferences can be found in:
Home
DON'T read these conferences:
Mailbox
(and any other conferences on the Desktop)
Save the settings file as "BBS name - send only" or something similar.
To have BulkRate send mail without reading new messages, simply open the "Send only" settings file before exchanging mail. Under System 7, this is as easy as double-clicking on the file's icon. Under System 6, you may have to use the Open settings file... menu item.
You can also use this technique to have BulkRate just send mail and check your mailbox, or any other combination of conferences by modifying the settings file.
