Taxonomy of big quoters

[Richard Mateosian <srm -at- C2 -dot- ORG>]

I'd just like to add a "me, too" to the gentle reminders about excessive
quoting. I think the folks who do this fall into a few categories.

Cautious
--------
They are afraid of being misunderstood. They want the entire history and
background of the posting available as a "legal record."

Lazy
----
They can't find, and won't take the trouble to synthesize, a pithy summary
of what they're responding to. Or they may find that quoting entire messages
simplifies finding the information in their files. Or they may not wish to
bother to learn how to use their mailing software (what, me read the manual?).

Ignorant
--------
Their software does it automatically, and they don't know how to change it.
They also may not know *how* to edit the quoted material. This category
overlaps with the previous one.

Technologically disadvantaged
-----------------------------
Their system or software may make editing difficult or expensive.


From the point of view of someone in one of these categories (or other
categories I may have overlooked), quoting entire messages may seem
sensible, or at least justified. If that's where you're coming from, I hope
you'll consider how others feel about the practice, and then look for a way
to stop doing it.

Thanks for thinking about it.  ...RM

Richard Mateosian                               President, Berkeley STC
Freelance Technical Writer     srm -at- c2 -dot- org     Review Editor, IEEE Micro