Heh heh heh... I couldn't agree more!

[copy sent direct to Gavin as (a) this is OT, and (b) he has disabled receiving these, so he won't see my nice comments about him at the end...]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gavin Scott [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
[usually I start to trim...]
> Sent: Friday, December 05, 2003 1:56 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [HP3000-L] OT: Unsubscribing from OT posts
[...end of section normally excised]

[original as displayed from initial "reply"]
> I've turned off OT posts not so much because of the traffic 
> or the topics of
> discussion, but because it's almost impossible to *read* half 
> of the OT
> posts because [you get the idea]

[How I typically "fix this"]
> I've turned off OT posts not so much because of the traffic 
> or the topics of discussion, but because it's almost [hand-entered CR]
> impossible to *read* half [del] of the OT [del] posts because [...]

save for a bunch of arrow-movements, it's pretty trivial to hit enter/delete as appropriate to "reformat" -- of course, I'm reformatting to a screen/window size that is convenient for me, which may mean that after it "posts" it will turn back into the above anyway.  In any case, I expect it is still easier to read in the long run.

> Specifically I wish to complain about people who use quoting 
> styles that make it impossible to figure out who wrote what.[...]
> In my opinion, if something is worth saying then it's worth 
> taking the time to say it well, and not simply push the reply-all button and 
> type the first thing that comes into your head and then mash the send button 
> without ever looking at the screen.

Thanks for saying what needed to be said! -- of course, with the current round of OT posts [save for the riddles], I've been actually skipping them un-read simply based on the subject line (I wish outlook would "thread" discussions a little better -- unfortunately, I think that only "works" if the entire "conversation" is hosted on an exchange server...)

And while on the topic of off-topic posts, I did notice the other day that the "number of recipients" as reported by the list's auto-reply function has dropped significantly since I last checked -- it used to be around 700, now I'm seeing a little over 650 -- so I'll bet a number of people have simply (and quietly) left [and yes, I know there are plenty of "legitimate" reasons for this number to fluctuate, not the least of which is the "attrition" rate of HP-3000 knowledgeable folks who find themselves unemployed or employed at non-3000-shops, so this list becomes more of a distraction than a resource...]

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