Not exactly my old kvetch, but a proposed experiment

[John M. Krafft]

List oldies may remember that I've been known to rail against the practice
of quoting original messages one is replying to--you know, the "two seconds
ago, you said he said she said I said five minutes ago . . . Well, guess
what: I'm not going to rail this time. I won't repeat  my rant about 
clutter or signal-to-noise ratios or courtesy or any of that, and I won't
even mention how some of the more flagrant examples (and less, for that matter)
have made me feel like murdering people I might otherwise actually like. 

I know there are people out there who think quoting original messages is a
positive public service.  So rather than argue the matter, I propose an 
experiment. How about if everybody turns off the quote-original-message 
function and agrees to leave it off for, say, one week so we can  all see
whether we miss it.  I'll admit it, honest, if I do. 

If you can't imagine what I'm making a fuss for, chances are  you don't 
subscribe to the digest.

For a while, the problem, as I perceive it, seemed to get less acute, 
but it's gotten really bad just lately. Without naming names, I'd like to 
ask whether a certain newby has any control over a program that tends to 
send about three times as much routing and formatting information as message--
but that's an entirely separate issue I just thought I'd piggyback on my 
main point.

jmk

John M. Krafft, English                  | Miami University--Hamilton
Voice:  (513) 785-3258 or (513) 868-2330 | 1601 Peck Boulevard
Fax:    (513) 785-3145                   | Hamilton, OH  45011-3399
E-mail: krafftjm at muohio.edu
WWW:    http://www.ham.muohio.edu/~krafftjm