Well, at last a few details are coming in. I'd like a right of reply, now
that I'm starting to get an idea of what's up - and then maybe we can move on.
[Johannes Gebauer:]
>You are not doing anything "wrong", but your quoting is non-standard. It
>also does have certain disadvantages. Look at the quote above: You precede
>your quoting with "Myself". Now imagine someone else quoting your message in
>the same way, and so on.
Well! I am astounded! I would never have thought that was a problem.
Thanks for telling me, Johannes. I only did it where it didn't seem completely
obvious that it was my own words - not all the time. When those greater-than
signs don't show makes it potentially even more confusing than usual. And when
I attributed my own words at the very top of an e-mail, I was just trying to
follow the rule about attributing all quoted material.
I have seen other people do this, anyway - or something similar, such as "I
say:". I've never dreamed for a moment anyone would see it as even a tiny
problem. It's just little variations in personal style by different people.
I guess I chose that form ("Myself" or "Me"), because putting "Michael
Edwards" in my own message, before quotes of my own text, would seem a bit
strange - referring to myself in the third person like a child. If I need to
label my own quotes, though, I can just use my full name, if it makes people
happy. (If I quote from the same person a second time, as I'm about to do,
should I repeat the attribution every time?)
>There are no quotation marks in your messages at all, except for the ones
>that were present in the messages you're replying to.
If you take a look, you will see that this is true only of letters replying
to Philip Aker and Jari Williamsson; the marks *are* there for replies to David
Bailey, Johannes Gebauer, Keith Helgesen, Patrick Hubers, Linda Worsley, and
Lawrence Yates, and I think almost everyone else. I don't (I repeat) know why,
or what I can do about it; I dislike the quirk myself. Both Philip and Jari
post in plain text, as far as I can tell, so H.T.M.L. posts don't appear to be
the reason.
If the marks are lacking in *all* my messages as you see them, not just
those replying to Philip and Jari, then either your e-mail program or some
process in between your computer and mine is changing the text I send. (With
some software these days, this wouldn't surprise me, actually.) Maybe it's to
do with the way particular list members have configured their e-mail program - I
don't know.
When this happens, I try to be extra careful with attributions, which is
why the "Myself" business came in. I'll use "Michael Edwards" when I have to
attribute quotes from earlier writing of mine, if it makes things better. Or
I'm happy to insert the greater-than signs by hand if it will make life easier
for people, although it can be a slight nuisance if it causes some lines to
exceed 80 characters, because I then need to reformat the whole paragraph in
question.
Regards,
Michael Edwards.
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