[Hallicrafters] Re: Hallicrafters digest, Vol 4 #334 - 10 msgs [Posting Request - Please Read]

[Barry L. Ornitz]

John Cusick wrote:

> A suggestion: Instead of starting a brand new email and 
> taking the time to re-write the Subject with a Re: "Subject" 
> and then cutting and pasting from the old message, why not 
> just hit "Reply To All" and then cut out the portions you 
> are not replying to? 

John is missing the point here.  Note the subject line of this 
post.  This is what happens when you "reply to sender" or 
"reply to all" when you get the messages in digest form.
I added the correct subject in brackets.  Would you know what 
the message was about without it from merely reading the 
subject?
 
> Its obviously faster for the sender of the Reply - no 
> cutting and pasting - just cutting, no re-writing the 
> Subject, and the sender can easily double-check the To: and 
> Cc: fields and drop one or the other if necesary (although 
> its preferable to just reply to the list, of course).
> 
> Finally... for those of us who take advantage of the 
> convenience and reference available with threading in our 
> email readers, we don't have to get a Re: message 10 or 20 
> days after the original post and search for the original (if 
> we haven't deleted it) to figure out the reference
> in the reply. It will be automatically threaded if the 
> "Reply To All" option is used.
> 
> I believe it actually takes less time than starting a 
> seperate brand-new message and it only takes one or two 
> messages to get the hang of it :)
> 
> I'm not complaining, this is just a suggestion.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> John C. 

Again this all relates to the differences between individual 
messages and digests.  With an individual message, all the 
extra quoting at the bottom is not really a problem (except 
for the added cost of the wasted bandwidth and the extra 
storage space needed for archives).  You just kill the message 
after you have read the beginning.  But for digest readers, 
you have to wade through all the garbage to get to the next 
message.  [It becomes garbage after the third or fourth time 
you have to read it with nesting up to six levels deep.]  How
does your email do threading on digests?

If you get messages individually, use the reply button and the 
subject line is fine.  But if you get the digests, remember to 
cut and past the right subject line.  For both digest and 
individual message readers, ALWAYS remember to only quote what 
is actually needed.

This particular post is not a good example of the way to do 
things properly.  But look at my previous post on PCB's.  Note 
that I have quoted parts of earlier messages in the text of my 
message.  Doesn't it make far more sense when reading a reply 
to know exactly what part of a previous message is being 
replied to, and isn't it easier to not have to read the entire 
previous message again and again?

        73,  Barry     WA4VZQ     ornitz at tricon.net