Re: [ga] ICANN | Advisory | 23 August 2001

[Sandy Harris <sandy@storm.ca>]

Joop Teernstra wrote:
> 
>  Nilda Vany Martinez Grajales wrote:
> >
> >I appreacite that Kent has remember to all of us about this issue.
> > ...
> 
> He is totally right on this point. ...

Yes.

> Trimming messages is elementary courtesy towards those with bandwidth
> constraints.

It is critically important for those with limited modem bandwidth, but
it is also better for the rest of us. In effect it saves bandwidth for
the eyes and brain.

For that matter, it also reduces load on the mailservers, saves storage
space on servers, in the list archive and on recipients' disks, and
saves bandwdith on the links between servers. These issues aren't as 
vital as the ones in the  previous paragraph, but they are worth 
considering.

There's a FAQ on mailing list ettiquette:
http://www.gweep.ca/~edmonds/usenet/ml-etiquette.html

The section on this question:

| When replying, should I quote the previous message? 

| Most certainly. You should always provide some context to your replies
| so that people who may not have been following the thread closely, or
| who have other things on their minds will easily be able to determine
| what you're talking about. 

| However, when quoting, be very careful to edit the quoted sections down
| to the bare minimum of text needed to maintain the context for your
| reply. There is very little on a mailing list that is more annoying 
| than paging through a few pages of quoted text only to read a few lines
| at the end. Also be careful that you clearly indicate what text you're
| quoting (as opposed to what you're writing), and if possible, cite the
| author of the original text. 
|
| If your mail program wants to attach the whole message you're replying
| to on the end of your replies, please do not let it do this if you can
| possibly avoid it. It is a good thing to include excerpts from previous
| messages with your replies to maintain a logical flow of discussion,
| but it is almost always a bad thing to include the entire text of a
| message being replied to, be it at the start or end of your reply.
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