Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: "More email than some can keep up with"

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

Michael Whitman wrote:
> Perhaps if it  [admonition to minimize quoting] were added to the
> Digest's opening header, more posters would remember to SNIP.

Sharon Villines wrote:
> On lists I moderate, I remind people to "trim your tails."

I've largely dispaired of getting people to overcome the often well
established habit of quoting everything in replies (abetted by Microsoft
and Gmail whose software defaults to bottom quoting.) This puts entire
quoted previous message at the bottom largely "out of sight & out of mind".
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Top-posting

But I'm willing to try one more time so I've added a header
to both regular ** and digest messages:

 PLEASE, TRIM YOUR TAILS. That is, minimize quoted material
 on replies.  See  http://justcomm.org/jc-faq.htm#Q8

Note that we will probably see THIS quoted in replies sometimes!
I don't know how long I'll leave it there...

BTW Note that it was an oversight that my message about the
15th anniversary did not discourage replies over the list but thanks
anyway :)  My standard reply is "Thanks, it is nice to be appreciated."
I encourage expressions of appreciation whenever appropriate.
I very much appreciate all those great posts over the years which makes
this worth doing for me.

** Tho I have not verified this, I suspect most posts come from regular
(non-digest) subscribers even tho there are more digest mode subscribers.
Only a small percentage of people post. Replying is more effort for digest
subscribers (fixing subject line and deleting more quoted material).  BTW
the 8 K size limit has caught most quoted digests, I think.

Fred, listserv manager

--
Fred H. Olson  Minneapolis,MN 55411  USA        (near north Mpls)
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