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Vacuum is a Manila Plugin that automatically imports content into a Manila
website.

In its initial release, Vacuum only imports from POP3 email accounts.

A managing editor (M.E.) can enable Vacuum for his or her site, then define
filters to specify what messages should be imported into the site.

When importing email messages, Vacuum filters out messages it has already
imported, so that duplicate messages do not get posted to the discussion
group. It also attempts to identify the message thread from the imported
email messages, and duplicate that threading in the discussion group when
the messages are imported.

> 
> If so, 
> - What form do the resulting posts take? Are they news items, stories,
> discussion group items, or what?

The are posted as discussion group messages.

> - Does the tool handle attachments?  Are the attachments posted as gems?

Also from the Help:

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attachmentProcessing


Controls the disposition of email attachments. It may be set to one of the
following values:


link

Add download links from the message to each attachment. This makes the
attachments available for download. They are not entered as Gems or as Filer
downloads; they remain with the message itself.

This is the default setting when you first install Vacuum.


ignore

Ignore attachments in posted email messages. The attachment data remains in
the ["#pluginInfo"].email.parts subtable within the message table, but no
link is created.

This is the least-effort option, and results in the smallest load on the
sever when running Vacuum.


strip

Delete attachment data from the stored message data when the messages are
posted. The attachments are permanently gone.

This results in the smallest data storage requirements, but imposes a
greater processing load on the server than simply ignoring the attachments.

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