#Internet CD-ROM list
4 messages in this thread
Rich, PMFJI,
If I quote you thus:-
<<the writer can't remember what he's responding to>>
it might make it look as though you can't remember. Like certain
advertisements quote the one good part of awful reviews a product or company
has had. Then you can see how a full quoting can protect people. Actually it's
usually the reader who will not remember what is being responded to. Internet
does not have the structured threading system we see on Compuserve. A message
saying "Yes, kill them all" will probably be mis-understood.
One other thing about Internet is that the majority of users never had to pay
their own bills so long messages never hurt anyone.
Andyc &:%)
RE: " Actually it's usually the reader who will not remember what is being
responded to. "
I'll second that. While some will whine who do understand, some of those
who whine about quoting just do not understand–for 2 main reasons. One is that
they themselves log on multiple times a day and thus do not lose place in the
discussions they are active in. The other is that some individuals are just
simply blessed with razor sharp memories.
Since we are talking about open forum discussions, we should treat them as
such, IMO. I mean, if we were gathered into a discussion circle in a public
area with participants dropping in and out, the need to rehash would not be
especially necessary except when a new person dropped in. Unlike time-delayed
electronic communications where it is impossible to know when newcomers drop
in, physical groupings do know when newcomers arrive.
Now, in a physical group as mentioned above, the group as a whole could
simply refuse to brief newcomers or not. Sometimes I think it is appropriate
not to brief newcomers or stragglers, but in most instances I think it is rude.
That being said, there is reason to believe quoters are more politely
orientated, and folks who place
Andy,
For those of us _without_ a proper Internet address, it gets a tad expensive
receiving all those duplicate messages through Compuserve Mail.
Quoting as you did here (ie a few words or maybe one sentence) is OK, but it's
the quoting of complete paragraphs and/or all of previous messages that's
irritating.
Adrian
Andrew:
I understand your point, and all such conventions grow out of legitimate needs
and responses to real problems. But I also think Larry Land has a point: the
practice of massive and indicriminate quoting may be the result of few having
to actually pay for the service. I don't want to make a big thing of it, it's
really more of an annoyance than an insult. Just one of those things to put on
our collective list of "better ways" to keep our eye out for.
Best – Rich Bowers