RE: Simple editing - willingness versus competence

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

Kevin wrote:  

> There's been a rash, lately, of people posting the entirety 
> of a previous message _ including the listserv-generated 
> administrivia _ with no slightest attempt to edit. As if we 
> all wanted to see the whole thing over and over...
> 
> Imagine if this list had a digest function - those recipients 
> would be _livid_ at having to wade through the miles of crud, 
> just to get to the next message in a digest.

The essay Kevin recalled is "The Inappropriate Posting Scenario":
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/magazine/humor/scenario.html 

As Suzanne noted, there is a digest option. And that leads to the most
egregious variant of what Kevin is complaining about (there was an
instance just yesterday), the one that caused me to give up digests.
It's item E in the essay cited above. 

The tipoff to this particular bit of thoughtlessness/cluelessness is a
subject line like "RE: TECHWR-L Digest, Vol 13, Issue 5." Inevitably,
the poster of said missive quotes the _entire_digest_. 

When it happens on a Sunday, and there are only two or three messages in
the digest being quoted, it's only mildly annoying (an annoyance not at
all assuaged by 60s flower-child treacle like "Desiderata"). 

When the quoted digest contains 65 posts, and you can't even tell from
the poster's reply which of them he/she is responding to, and (if you're
reading it in the next digest) it takes you five minutes to find the end
of that &$#%*@ post, well... "livid" probably fits. 

Richard


------
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------






^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word features support for every major Help
format plus PDF, HTML and more. Flexible, precise, and efficient content
delivery. Try it today! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l

Easily create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to any popular Help file format or printed documentation. Learn more at http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- infoinfocus -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40infoinfocus.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.