The last part is not so clear. I understand that if you do not remove the
trailer message (the parts starting with ///) then your whole message will
be deleted and never appear on the list. Correct?
Basically, yes. This setup is an attempt to do something about folks who
just blindly attach the entire original message to their replies. On the Spit
list, it wasn't getting as bad as some lists, which were in the area of 80
to 85 percent quoted material. Sure, there were individual posters on this
list whose messages were in that realm. People were getting roughly one part
new content, five parts recycled material in the course of their subscriptions.
Sort of like opening that 12 oz beer and getting 2 ounces of beer and 10
ounces of, uh, well, never mind. I, for one, prefer better beer than that.
Of course, there is certainly some irony in using up bandwidth in an effort
to save bandwidth. But I'm hoping that in the long run, the effort pays off.
On some of the other lists where this filtering has been implemented there is
already an improvement. Not subscribing to all eighty-whatever autox.team.net
lists I can't really say for sure if it has affected the character of the
lists one way or another. For lists like, say, mtm (Michigan Turn Marshalls)
which hasn't seen a message for over a year, unrestrained quoting is not a
major issue. For the big lists that see dozens of messages per day, it does
add up.
So, "fearing not I'd become my enemy in the instant that I preach" I'll march
on, hoping the investment in bandwidth today pays off in the future. Perhaps
some real examples from recent days might help explain, rather than just basic
handwaving and generalities. I won't mention any names directly, and hopefully
folks who might recognize themselves in the examples won't be looking to lynch
me.
In one message, someone tells the tale of their car not making it through MOT
inspection. No problem, that's the sort of thing this list is all about. One
of the replies to that message consists of two sentences suggesting to check
out a recent issue of a magazine that did an article on MOT stuff. Those two
sentences along with the subject line, were, in my opnion, sufficient to make
the author's point. But for some reason, the *entire original message*, except
the trailer, was included. Why did the author feel it necessary to include
ALL that stuff once again?
And some of the replies to the 'Mk 1 Crash Pad' survey provide one or two
sentences of new information, and then include a transcript of several of
the previous replies. What are these people thinking?
Messages like this should be sufficient:
From: bozo@diploma.mill.edu
Re: Color survey
My car is green.
But we get massive epics of nested replies like:
From: bozo@diploma.mill.edu
Re: Color survey
> > > > > What color is your car?
> > > > My car is red
> > > My car is blue
> > My car has no paint
> My car is black
My car is green.
There could be any number of reasons why they want to ship off all those extra
bits. Maybe they wish to provide me more entertainment through having all the
little lights blink faster on the various bits of hardware that serve these
lists. Maybe they are planning on attending the VTR convention this year, and
think that if I spend more of my time going through admin mail cleaning up
after them and removing subscribers who've used up their storage allotment, I
won't have time to work on my cars and won't beat them at the autocross.
Maybe they have some extra spending money, and are trying to fill up the disks
on the server faster, so they can contribute for new hardware. Or maybe they
are broke, wish everyone else was, and are trying to make sure that people who
have to pay for their connections are forced to shell out a few more cents to
see the same old stuff once again. I'm sure there are plenty of reasons.
In some cases, such as one response to the original MOT message cited above
where the various points in the first message were addressed in the reply,
including chunks of the original is the way to go. Sometimes yes, sometimes
no.
Basically, all I want to see is people taking a few seconds of time and a bit
of effort to compose a succinct, useful message of benefit to all on the list,
without a lot of excess baggage. If quoting is necessary, do it. If quoting
is not necessary, don't do it. Engage brain before engaging keyboard.
If you use some version of Outlook, that virus magnet from those marketing
thugs in the Seattle area, you may want to change your settings to NOT
automatically include the entire original message in your reply, which is the
default. While there, you may also want to turn off the 'feature' of having
Outlook automatically add the sender's name to your address book. The main
purpose of that little gem seems to be to make it easier for folks to more
quickly and unwittingly spread whatever virus they've picked up to all the
people who've posted to the list.
Well, this missive on shorter messages is already way too long, enough for now.
mjb.
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