Cohousing-L Mailing List: PLEASE, Learn to delete quoted text

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

Lately cohousing-L has again had excessive quoting of previous messages.

Please learn to delete any material not needed to set the context for your
message.  Previous messages do not need to be quoted completely, they are
always available in the archives if needed. Below is one subscriber's
instruction how to handle quotes.   Fred, listserv manager


From: Michael Whitman <Michael.Whitman [at] valley.net>
Subject line:  Respect for readers -- delete excessive quotes

Hello, all -- Posters to this discussion list consistently send in positive,
on-topic, non-rambling messages, but may I make a plea that everyone also pay
attention to how many lines they use up in (1) the "quoted" material that they
are responding to, and (2) their sign-off? Frequently a short, interesting post
is followed by screens and screens of other stuff that's been posted before.

    Posters can "snip" a few lines that tells readers what you are
replying to. CAUTION:  With many email programs, if you simply hit "Reply"
when you respond to someone else's post, their ENTIRE post, plus all the
from-to-date-subject-routing info is also quoted. I know of two ways to
snip, and there are likely more:

1. Some email software allows you to highlight something in a message you are
reading, and when you hit "Reply", your outgoing message will start with
something like "You wrote--- ...[what you highlighted]... ---End of quote",
after which you can put your new message. This feature may also be in
Microsoft's new "Entourage" email software.

2. With other email programss, like older Outlooks, even if you highlight
something brief to reply to, it will quote the entire incoming message
when you hit "Reply". If your email works this way, take a minute and
delete everything except what you are replying to, before you contribute.

    Example: I recently read a great two-line reply to a three-line quote, but
this admirable brevity was followed by a 12-line "signature" and 98 lines of
re-quoted material from the previous message. In the same digest, a
15-line message was followed by 99 lines of quote and requote.

3. Some folks always end with a signature block with their name, job title,
company or community, website, phone number, and perhaps even a pithy quote, or
symbols that make a picture with accents and punctuation characters, which
readers really don't need. Once, OK, but not every time, please!
[ I suggest and encourage informative "signatures" up to 3-5 lines.
  Fred, list manager ]

Thank you --

   Michael Whitman