The number one reason of all time that people get moderated in this
group is...
**** Not deleting excess quoted text in replies to the list! ****
So it's time for our semi-often, monthly-scheduled reminder to
everyone to PLEASE delete excess quoted text in your replies.
What's excess quoted text?
- Anything that isn't necessary to show what you're replying to.
- List footers, Yahoo Adverts, Yahoo footers
Example of commenting
On Thursday, April 20th, Fred Smith wrote:
Tal Farlow is the best jazz guitarist
[snip]
I agree
His tone is the best
[snip]
I disagree
Why is this important?
- Because some people in our international list membership still
pay for their phone service or internet access by the minute or have
restriction on how many hours they can connect each month.
- Because it makes the digest incredibly long and extremely
difficult to read.
- Because it's common courtesy. Do you spit food at people? Do
you slop your drinks on them? Do you slam doors in their face? (If
you answered yes to any one of those, perhaps we need to send Ms.
Manners to your house! :)) If you answered No to those questions,
then deleting excess quoted text in your replies is the commonly
courteous thing to do.
- And most importantly, because the easier it is to find and read
your reply, the more likely you are to get answers and you never know
when you're going to need one. :)
But I forget to scroll down before hitting send!
- Then don't put your replies at the top! That's the easiest way
to remind yourself to delete all that excess stuff, by having to
scroll thru it yourself. Some study I read once told me it takes 21
times of doing something to make a habit, so work on moving your
replies to the bottom and deleting the extra stuff above your reply
and pretty soon, you'll do it without even thinking.
But my email program automatically puts my sig at the top and I have
to put my reply above it!
- Some email programs give you the option to put your sig at the
top or at the bottom. If your email program gives you that choice,
take advantage of it. If you're interested in a good email program
with all the features of Outlook Express and Eudora, try Mozilla's
email program, Thunderbird, it's safer than Outlook Express and it has
more features (says I, a formerly addicted-to-OE user :))
- If you're using Outlook Express, you can install OE-QuoteFix, an
OE plugin which, among other nifty things, will put your sig at the
bottom of your email for you. (I used it for several years, it's a
great little program!) OE-QuoteFix can be found here:
- For GMail users, your sig already goes at the bottom of the
message. While GMail may hide most quoted text in your mailbox,
please be considerate of your fellow non-GMail users and as you scroll
thru your message putting in your reply, delete all that excess stuff.
Why do I care if I'm moderated? If you're having a particularly urgent
problem and you're moderated because you haven't been deleting excess
quoted text, you'll find your message waiting around for one of the
list moderators to check the Pending Message list and approve
your message. So being unmoderated is the best thing for YOU, your
messages go out to the list faster and you'll get the answers you need
faster.
For more email tips see:
YJGG FAQ:
