Re: Trimming quotes

[Nick Dokos <nicholas.dokos@hp.com>]

Ben Finney <ben+emacs@benfinney.id.au> wrote:

> tsd@tsdye.com (Thomas S. Dye) writes:
> 
> > Can you point me to trimming guidelines for digest readers?
> 
> In brief: Don't respond at all to a digest message.
> 
> Instead, respond to the actual message you want to respond to; that way,
> your response will include correct fields in the header to preserve the
> thread of discussion.
> 
> So, treat the digest message as a one-way channel. If you think you
> might ever respond, turn off digest mode and respond to individual
> messages.
> 

Tom did not respond to a digest message. He responded to an ordinary
message on the list, one that was already bloated with untrimmed
content, so the new comments in his response were a tiny fraction of the
total. That in itself is somewhat unpleasant although tolerable, but
James Harkins pointed out that for somebody reading the list in digest
form, such messages cause some hardship.

Nick

PS. FWIW, my guidelines are to trim as much as possible. I include the
question(s) that I respond to and insert my answers inline.  I try to
include enough context so that somebody reading just that piece of mail
can make (at least some) sense of the questions and the answers. And I
delete any part that I'm not directly commenting on.