Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2005 01:49:43 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Quoting
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

As I mentioned, my strong preference is for including only enough
quoted text to establish context.  Frequently, as in this case, that
amount is "none at all".

A good rule of thumb is to pretend you have to *retype* what you are
quoting.  If it's not something you would retype, don't include it.

Imagine your message printed in a fanzine.  How do you want it to
look?  Should it really contain lines containing half a dozen angle
brackets?  Should the quoted text alternate between long lines and
lines with just one word on them?  Have mercy on your readers.

Also keep in mind that the messages are all permanently archived on
the WSFA website.  That website is limited to 150 megabytes, unless
the club wants to start spending real money for it.  That 150
megabytes is for all the Capclave information, all the WSFA Journals,
our calendar of upcoming events, pictures, WSFA and Disclave history,
and much else.  When someone quotes 157 lines, four levels deep,
to add *one word* -- which happened this morning -- that's space
permanently set aside that can't be used for something more interesting.

Top posting vs. bottom posting is mostly beside the point.  Yes, a
mixture of the two is an unreadable mess, but there should never be
a mixture unless the sender is quoting two or more levels deep, which
should be extremely rare.  And if there is a legitimate need to quote
two levels deep, simply edit the levels into your preferred quoting
style.  If you're too busy to make your message look readable, please
wait until you're no longer too busy before posting.  Thank you.

As for history, Steve got it mostly right.  The ARPAnet and early
Internet standard was actually to quote by indenting, not with angle
brackets.  This standard presumably came from books and magazines,
in which brief excerpts of text being commented on are indented.
The angle bracket standard started on Usenet (which was originally
completely separate from the Internet) in 1982, and spread to the
Internet by late 1983, though it didn't really catch on until 1985
or so.