What is this "editing" stuff I keep hearing about?
Description
This article is from the Singles FAQ, by Trygve Lode tlode@nyx.net with numerous contributions by others.
What is this "editing" stuff I keep hearing about?
"Editing," which is most commonly used in the phrase "please
learn how to edit your messages" refers to deleting unnecessary
quoted material. It's not at all unusual for newcomers to the
net to reply to long messages by quoting the entire thing and
then responding to a comment made somewhere in the middle of
the original post by adding a single sentence onto the end.
It's much better to delete quoted text from the original
message if it isn't necessary to what you're trying to say.
Remember that many people out there, when they see huge reams
of quoted material that obviously hasn't been edited down, will
simply skip over to the next message without bothering to read
your sterling prose at the end, so a little attention to the
mechanisms of cleaning up quoted material will help you get
your points across. Also be sure to delete any quoted material
left at the end of your message--it's easy to respond to
something in the middle or even the beginning and forget to lop
off the quoted stuff at the end that you aren't responding to.
Don't be too industrious when deleting text, though--be sure to
leave enough quoted text so that the readers will know what
you're talking about even if they don't remember the message
that you're responding to and be careful not to trim off the
attributions (the names of the people saying the things you're
quoting) that go with the text you leave in. (Do feel
encouraged to remove the names of people whose comments have
been entirely deleted, though.)
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