| Subject: | RE: Digest for ob-@topica.com, issue 301 |
| Date: | 11/28/2000 12:25 AM |
| From: | Michael O'Hair |
|
I'll try once more to point out the obvious: The problem is that the "signal to noise" ratio goes down drastically when people use the Reply key without thinking and recycle the original message. The original size of this message as I got it was 1,949 lines of text totaling 80,655 bytes. I did a fast edit on the file to remove such stuff as ads for someone's sponsor(?): -- Support our Sponsor ------------------------------------=20 Imagine a credit card with a 0% introductory APR on purchases (for=20 complete pricing information and important terms and conditions,=20 please click on the link below). Apply now for an Aria Visa!=20 and such popular stuff as passing unreadable files around: Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="TEXT.htm" PCFET0NUWVBFIEhUTUwgUFVCTElDICItLy9XM0MvL0RURCBXMyBIVE1MLy9FTiI+DQo8SFRNTD4N CjxIRUFEPg0KDQo8TUVUQSBjb250ZW50PSJ0ZXh0L2h0bWw7IGNoYXJzZXQ9aXNvLTg4NTktMSIg aHR0cC1lcXVpdj1Db250ZW50LVR5cGU+DQo8TUVUQSBjb250ZW50PSciTVNIVE1MIDQuNzIuMzEx MC43IicgbmFtZT1HRU5FUkFUT1I+DQo8L0hFQUQ+DQo8Qk9EWSBzdHlsZT0iRk9OVDogOHB0IE1T The result was 562 lines long and 16,889 bytes in total size. And, if I may add, a lot easier to read, even without a thorough cleanup. The goal of this email group is to share _INFORMATION_ not noise! This situation has occurred many times on the internet over the last twenty years or so. The solution is always the same: People who post have to practice good netiquette, and yes, the principles and practices thereof are readily available of the net or from your ISP. The basic rules: 1) Trim your posting. Do not resend the same message over and over and over. 2) Do not post jpegs, mpegs, binaries, etc., to the group. Simply state that such files are available upon request. The real problem is that this requires some thought and some effort. It's so much easier just to hit the "Reply" key. I'm sure I will get more ad hominem attack and such insightful advice as "Why not just hit the delete button?" or the even better "Why just unsubscribe if you don't like how things are?" (Both of which I got the last time I made this modest proposal.) It is important to remember that the people who use this group are the ones who have to police it. Failure to do so can result in this most useful forum being removed. Michael O'Hair ============================================================================ =================== |
