Tolga [mailto:tolga(_at_)ozses(_dot_)net] wrote Monday, October 01, 2007 12:30
PM:
Dallman Ross wrote:
Tolga wrote Monday, October 01, 2007 12:11 PM:
[Dallman Ross wrote:[1]]
[1] You are deleting attributions of who said what you quote.
Please do not do that.
I don't quite understand :(
Last week you were not trimming your posts but quoting back
the entire message. That has been frowned upon on this list
since the beginning (about 14 or 15 years ago!), so I asked
you to trim more thoughtfully. You did! I was glad about that,
and I thank you. But then you started quoting back [my]
words without leaving in the line stating who it was who
said the thing quoted. (I put them back in with editor's
brackets and the note.) That, too, is frowned on. (It isn't
about ego, as someone said last year or so who pointedly
refused to attribute quotes properly; it's about "ownership"
of words, and it?s about helping the readers follow the
thread; but more important, it's about being able to
evaluate, as an active reader, the plausibility of what
was said. For example, if a longstanding list member who
has repeatedly demonstrated good knowledge about the area
being discussed gives an opinion about what might be wrong,
it could be worth more "reader mips" than if a self-professed
newbie said it.)[1]
[1] Whatever good knowledge I have is parceled into specific
areas. If I start talking about the dynamics of the operating
or file system or its memory or how pointers might work in the
C language, you can rest assured that I am speaking from
a non-expert's perspective! But if I talk about some procmail
construct or other, it might be based on more knowledge and
experience. (And if there are dumb mistakes, my mind might
be going or I might have been in a hurry or I might have been
too tired or have had a glass of wine.) :-) So knowing who
said what was quoted can be useful for the reader, as well as
its being expected posting etiquette to give that information.
Dallman
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