At 12:01 PM 3/24/2009 -0400, Eric A. Meyer wrote: >Still, I've seen many instances of people quoting an entire >message and then putting a one-line response at the bottom of it all. >This is really no better than doing the same and putting the response >at the top.
I can totally relate. I currently run a list myself, and have been a list admin on a few other lists in the past, and I've always tried to get people to do exactly the same, too -- some people just don't get it, though! Indeed, I ended up in a heated argument a few months ago with someone who thought that I was being extremely strict in expecting people to trim their messages, etc., and he felt that it was actually advantageous and beneficial to have 5, 6, even 7 or more previous quoted posts "just for reference" as to what was being talked about. I can't imagine what a daily digest version of a list like *that* would look like! ;) > I'm not picking on Donald here, by the way. I'm simply using his >observation as a launching point for a public reminder that quoted >material should always to be trimmed to the bare minimum needed, and >maybe slightly less than that. It's more efficient and more >respectful of the other members of the list. Here's a couple of references that I usually give out to people (if/when they don't "get it")... - How to Write Effective Mailing List Email http://www.digital-web.com/articles/how_to_write_effective_mailing_list_email/ - A Beginner's Guide to Effective Email http://www.webfoot.com/advice/email.top.php - Quoting style in newsgroup postings http://www.anta.net/misc/nnq/nquote.shtml - Problem Solving: Sending Messages in Plain Text http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/listadmins/plaintext.html ...and last but certainly not least... - Godwin's law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law Thankfully, I haven't seen this latter issue come up here yet (not *on* list, anyway!). ;) With that said, surprisingly there are still some people out there who can read those articles, but still insist that it's much better to waste hundreds of peoples' time with messy, poorly-formatted, poorly-trimmed, difficult to understand, utter waste-of-bandwidth list posts (let alone off-list messages). Ron :/ Woof?... http://www.Psymon.com Ach, du Leni!... http://www.Riefenstahl.org Hmm... http://www.Imaginary-Friend.ca ______________________________________________________________________ css-discuss [cs...@lists.css-discuss.org] http://www.css-discuss.org/mailman/listinfo/css-d List wiki/FAQ -- http://css-discuss.incutio.com/ List policies -- http://css-discuss.org/policies.html Supported by evolt.org -- http://www.evolt.org/help_support_evolt/
