On Tue, Sep 06, 2005 at 12:19:51PM -0400, Bill Truesdell penned:
> We have a clash of civilizations- the BeeL and many newsgroups. Many
> newsgroups have the protocol to leave in all quotes so you can follow
> the thread.

This is not correct as a simple Google search using the words
"usenet excessive quoting" will show. *Some* newsgroups *may* tolerate
this but Usenet has always *highly* frowned on the practice. This stems
from the early Usenet days when disk space was limited and news was pass
over slow dial-up (sometimes long distance) phone lines. email is no
different.

It is *very* annoying to scroll through endless repeats of quoted,
re-quoted and re-re-quoted mail (nearly unedited) only to find the
equivalent "me too" at the end.

As for bee-l specifically, it makes the archives *less* useful. Aside from
wasting the University's generously donated disk space, searchers have to
wade through all the noise to find the useful bits.

If I get email containing excessive quoting, I stop reading and hit
the "delete" key. I read the post the first time, my attention span is
not [yet :-)] so short I need to see it again (and again and ...). BTW,
*I* define excessive as a screenful (24 lines) or more for no good reason.

Aside to Aaron and the other moderators: I empathize. There is no reason
you should have to waste your time playing copy-editor because others
are too lazy to do their own.

> Which is why we on the BeeL often get off on rabbit trails
> and there is little in the post that has to do with the subject line.

Hint: When this happens either the thread is over and should die. Or
start a *new* thread with a *new* subject. Sometimes it is acceptable
to keep the same thread but change the subject line,
e.g. Subject: beekeeping (was: basket weaving).

          bob
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