TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: B R E V I T Y P L E A S E! From:Kat Nagel <katnagel -at- EZNET -dot- NET> Date:Mon, 15 Feb 1999 22:20:30 -0800
-----Original Message-----
>How come it is that people on this list want to cut and paste
the entire
>post and the entire header when replying? Brevity, please.
>
>Bob Maxey
>3Com
I don't think there are very many people who deliberately cut and
paste all that junk.
I'm playing with several email applications at the moment (PC as
well as Mac), and I'm beginning to understand why so many people
do dumb things like quoting whole digests and sending messages
with 18 sets of nested headers. The problem is that many email
applications quote the complete original message---in full gory
detail---as a default. We actually have to REMEMBER to cut the
garbage out. For someone in a hurry, that is a terrible burden
<g>.
A few applications, like Eudora Pro, make it easy to adjust the
settings to safeguard against digest-quoting and
header-forwarding accidents. Others, unfortunately, do not. (I am
not mentioning Microsoft products or competing multifunctional
browsers, here. No, I am not. EVEN IF THEY DESERVE IT. Oh,
sorry. Didn't mean to shout.)
If this were a perfect universe, each of us would be using
software that let us work convieniently and comfortably while
preventing us from annoying the recipients of our stellar prose,
no matter what their peculiar preferences might be.
I don't know about you, but the universe -I- live in is far from
perfect. Each of us occasionally forgets which settings have to
be changed for mailing lists. Each of us occasionally forgets to
delete unwanted text from a reply. Each of us occasionally gets
an attack of fumble thumb at the wrong time and unknowingly
includes a full issue of a digest in a short reply.
Them's the breaks.
/K@
who is putting LIFE2 on hold while LIFE1 goes into overdrive
Kat Nagel__________________________________ LIFE1 pays for LIFE2
LIFE1: technical writing/editing/web stuff (katnagel -at- eznet -dot- net)
LIFE2: vocal chamber music performance junkie
(playnsong -at- aol -dot- com)
