Re: your mail: Reposting Entire Articles

William Bangs (wbbangs@U.WASHINGTON.EDU)
Sat, 18 Mar 1995 21:38:24 -0800

Dear everyone on the list: I recently got a piece of private mail I do
not share to protect the privacy of its contents. I do, however, think
the issue is an important one which should be addressed by the
list-community however: do most subscribers get frustrated when a post is
replied to by quoting it in its entirety with some brief (one word)
comment at the end? Are there ever times when this can be seen as
appropriate? Please read my response to Tom (who can share the original
with interested parties) below, and respond on the list with the subject
header [repost] for those who don't want to follow the thread. Thanx. Ben

Hi, Tom. Look: I usually do edit when I include messages. But the
Robert Johnson thing has led me to believe some on anthro-l are less
consientous than you in "reading that post once"; if so I wanted them to
be peeved enough that they'd be curious and read the darn thing. Rukus'
message is SO important that if EVERY SUBSCRIBER TO THE LIST reposted it
in its entirety twice it'd do us all good. We're no more on top of
things than others on the internet: we need to remember that others have
feelings -- even Robert Johnson.

My personal policy is, whenever posible, to include only those parts of a
message with which I agree, or upon which I wish to comment. In this
case I felt we all needed to read it again; those who feel as you did
probably saw what I was up to and will either be mailing me shortly or
just grunted with disgust in private. Exception taken; rule affirmed.

Ben Bangs

Do what's right, not what's easy!