An Etiquette Request from your Mailing List Maintainer

[Dick Gabriel <RPG@SU-AI.ARPA>]

Having been away from the Bay Area for 1 week, I returned to 260 Common
Lisp messages. I found the topics and arguments intriguing, but I found
the mail itself maddening.  The problem is that almost all of the messages
that were responses to others included the text of the messages to which
they were responding. That is, many messages looked like this:

<incredibly long header>

	<incredibly long header>

		<incredibly long header>

			<incredibly long header>

			<original comment>

		<secondary comment>

	<tertiary comment>

<The comment: ``I agree with the tertiary comment.''>

I would like to suggest that people who send comments to this
list spend some time thinking about how to best present their
comments in such a way that the duplication of messages is
minimized. I realize that sometimes the original messages must
be partially included.

Examples of message-senders who send well-presented messages are Weinreb
and Fahlman. Please try to imitate their message-sending style.
When you feel you must send parts of other messages, only send the
parts required and only enough of the header to identify the exact
message for people who wish to consult their own archives for the
original.

One aspect of message-response that I wish to pessimize is the
message-responder's effort. Taking the time to compose a well-presented
response gives you time to think about your response and whether it
is truly necessary to send. Your mail goes to many hundreds, if not
thousands, of people.

Thank you.

			-rpg-