Hi all,
First off let me say that I am not trying to flame anybody, it
is not my intent to make anybody mad or hurt anyone's feelings,
and I am not writing this note to boost my own ego or to try to
punch holes in the egos of others. It just seemed a bit odd that
...
I was reading through the digest and came upon three separate
notes about copyright issues regarding the posting of entire
chapters of a book (and as a published author as well, I happen
to agree with). And, it just seemed a bit odd that each of the
three separate posts quoted the entire text of one of the chap-
ters that were being complained about in their reply.
What is odd is that the copyrighted text that was under dis-
cussion had now been posted a total of four times. I might hu-
morously ask if there is a copyright law about copying a copy of
a violated work in an e-mail reply. Or, would the thought be too
recursive?
Anyway, this brings up one of my smaller e-mail pet peeves.
It is a fairly common form of Internet courtesy -- or 'Netiquette
-- to only include the *portion* of the text of the e-mail that
you are replying to in your reply -- not the *entire* message.
Only include that text which helps someone understand the context
of your reply.
I know that it is easier to press "Reply," add some text, and
press "Send." But, consider the fact that everyone on-list has
seen the original message at least once. Do, they need to see
the entire text of it again? And, people (like me :-) ) on the
digest don't have the option of deleting a message after we read
the reply. We get the whole thing with dozens of other, similar
messages surrounding it. And, when it starts becoming quotes of
quotes of quotes of quotes, it gets a little annoying.
For most folks, this is a simple mouse operation: point to the
text you don't need, press mouse button one, hold and drag until
the text you don't want to include is highlighted, and then press
the backspace or delete key. Or, if you don't want the text of
the original message in your reply at all, it's a very simple Op-
tion/Preference change in most mailers.
There is already a list-contingent who is trying (slowly but
surely) to get list-members to post in plain text -- no MIME at-
tachments, no included HTML -- and they are being somewhat suc-
cessful. If we could just add this one little thing, in my opin-
ion, everybody's list experience would be a little bit better.
Thank you for taking the time to let me invade your mailbox
with my opinion. We now take you back to your regularly sched-
uled Parkinson's chat.
Bill--
...who heard a wise man say "Never play leapfrog with a Unicorn."
.___. William A. ....._..._ .......7177 Heritage Drive (42?) - (42?) ----+
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