Message-ID: <20000710041924.9087.qmail@hotmail.com>
X-Originating-IP: [207.236.31.148]
From: "PB S" <cymbalaria AT hotmail DOT com>
To: opendos AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Quoting, Listening, and Netiquette
Date: Sun, 09 Jul 2000 21:19:24 PDT
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Reply-To: opendos AT delorie DOT com

A big problem?

I enjoy reading the opendos mailing list. I've used DR-DOS since the Digital 
Research Golden Years. Back when my hard drive was only 20 megabytes. Back 
when every little byte was important. Now, with huge hard drives and fast 
Internet connections, sloppiness and laziness seem to rule the computer 
world. It is funny that I keep reading, here, astute criticisms of Microsoft 
as producing "bloated software" yet some of the people on this mailing list 
show the same degree of laziness. It takes just a split second to remove 
quoted material. If you don't take that second, what does it say about both 
you and other DR DOS users? I mean, we are *command line* lovers! We abhor 
all those media quotes that say, over and over: "The DOS command line is bad 
because the commands are too cryptic." The way the computer world is going, 
next thing you know, we'll need a Flash Shockwave Plugin to view 
multimegabyte messages full of cute animated cartoon characters! Is this 
what computers are for?

I am not handicapped. Jim Stevenson was not asking the majority of the 
community to cater to the needs of the minority. I was tempted to say 
exactly the same thing he did. Why should the READER have to "filter" and 
why should the lazy habits of some force us to "make changes to our reader 
software"? That's exactly the Microsoft way of looking at the world, isn't 
it?

Ok. If you want practical reasons for keeping email short and sweet:

1. For those of us who SAVE the messages for future reference, having tons 
of un-necessarily requoted stuff adds significantly to the storage space.

2. If you want to search for key words, you triple or quadruple the number 
of duplicate hits. It does not make sense from an "information management" 
perspective.

3. If our children or peers watch us being lazy, they'll do it too. Watch 
out! They might end up working for Microsoft!

4. It is polite. The Right Thing to do. Civil. And it only takes a second: 
block text, scroll down, press the delete key.

Sure, computers are *programmable* but they are a joy to use when things are 
elegant. That's why I've always liked DR-DOS and the philosophy behind it. 
Right from the beginning. Just remember Gary Kildall.

There, I've had my rant.

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