Exegesis V5 Issue #21

Exegesis Volume 5 Issue #21

From: "Francis G. Kostella"
Subject: Moderator babbling...

Exegesis Digest Sat, 01 Apr 2000

Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2000 23:57:14 -0500
From: "Francis G. Kostella"
To: exegesis
Subject: Moderator babbling...

If anyone else has not seen their message here, nor received a reply from me, please do not hesitate to resend your message. It seems that the technical process I set in place to assist moderating the list has a few problems. I'll have to think about how to change it for the better.

Secondly, the amount of quoted material per message is getting very large lately and I've begun bouncing message back to their authors asking them to trim the fat. Here are some helpful tips:

You should assume that readers here are able to read the entire original message offline if they need to do so. Pick the smallest bit of material needed to convey your point. Posting 30 lines followed by a one line remark is a waste of our time. I'll allow a bit of this, but lately the rate has been increasing to the point where some messages are more than 60% quoted material! Too much! I assume our readers are able to archive a few messages and understand how to open up an old message to review or check your point if it seems out of hand.

You should NEVER send a message which contains a big blob of quoted material at the bottom. I assume that the message was unfinished and return it to the author. I never edit your messages.

Assume our readers are smart and can follow the point without too much hand-waving. My experience is that the large quotes usually contain one sentence to which the reply is really directed. Quote that sentence, ignore the rest.

The single biggest complaint I receive from readers is that there tends to be too much quoted material and that it gets in the way of reading the new content.

Otherwise, my ISP has been spotty for the last few weeks and has slowed down my already slothful rate of forwarding messages. I'm hoping things will improve soon. If not, I will switch ISPs again. The web site is still in limbo and will be for a while longer. Anyone who needs recent back issues should send me a message.

On a lighter note, the list just turned four! I'm amazed that we not only get so many good postings (despite the quotes), but that we've had 200 readers for nearly three years!