From: pgr@comlab.ox.ac.uk (Idle Raffish Hippy Grocer) Subject: Article quoting in followups (was Re: 4th time: PLEASE help with pl10!!!) Date: Wed, 30 Jun 1993 15:55:53 GMT
[Followup's redirected to `poster' since this is a meta-gripe]
Please, could people *trim* down followups a bit! In article
<206624INNe56@uwm.edu>, Craig T Manske asks for some help with pl10 and
the net code, in a 40 line article. So far I have seen 4 direct replies:
In <206gbt$str@boson.epita.fr>, Rety Emmanuel writes:
[whole of previous article + 3 line comment]
In <1993Jun22.092822.21956@news.mic.ucla.edu>, cliff UCLA Astronomy
writes:
[whole of previous article (including news header) TWICE + 6 line
addition]
In <1993Jun29.222528.12114@intrepid.com>, Vladimir Vukicevic writes:
[whole of previous article + solution of 7 lines]
In <1993Jun22.093317.3449@spuddy.uucp>, Mitchum Dsouza writes:
[whole of previous article + last resort suggestion of 10 lines]
In other words, I have now seen that article 5 times (6 if you count the
duplicated one). There is *no* need to include the entire of the
previous persons post when you followup -- it isn't too hard for
somebody to chase back to the previous article if they interested in the
whole thing, but you only need to include the relevant bits, or a
(1 or 2-line) summary of what the other person said.
May I also be as bold to suggest that, if you can email the person rather
than post, then *do* so. If you have a me-too problem, then mail the
original poster asking to either post the solution when she/he gets it,
or send them a copy. Generally, of course, the person who eventually
gets the solution should post a summary (not all the replies, just a
summary) of what the solution was.
I know the c.o.l split is now an almost certainty, but we could all reduce
traffic in this newsgroup by controlling the followup tendency and using
email a little more (when possible -- I am aware that some people have
Usenet access but not email). And, of course, if traffic was lower,
the chances are people wouldn't have to post the same question 4 times
since it has more chance of not being missed...
Read `Emily Postnews's guide to posting (by Spaf) in news.answers (and
various other places), for a light-hearted list of do's and don'ts...
(including the ones above).
Plaintively,
pihl "ok, so I'm acting like a net.cop"