Yes, many voice mail systems blow. I find that it's easier and quicker to leave a slightly more detailed voice mail, though, considering: 1) I can talk faster than I can type 2) The listener gets the added dimension of voice, where meaning can get lost or misinterpreted via email 3) People are so inundated by email that your voice mail may get more attention (at least they have to listen to a portion of it once to learn the point rather than skipping it in the inbox based on the sender and subject)

You also make a great point about the outgoing message. Let's find a standard to make them concise, too (during non-campaign season)! Unless you're expecting a call from someone in the third world who has never even made a phone call, do you need to say, "I'm not in right now," "I'm out of the office" (unless you've gone to the third world and will have no access to check vm), "leave a message at the beep/tone," "I'll call you back when I don't have anything better to do," and instructions on what to say in your vm (unless it's Merlin's succint vm guidelines)?