just push delete?

[Robert Scott]

Regarding a complaint about off-topic postings, Win wrote:

> If you don't want to read it, Hans, just push the "delete" button.

Even if that were all there was to it, that is still an impolite burden
to impose on the several hundred subscribers to this list.  But the fact
is that is not all there is to it.

All the resources that we use when we send e-mail or surf the web are
paid for by somebody.  That includes trunk lines, modems, and mass storage
at your internet service provider.  However the fee structure is usually
flat so that most of us are charged the same whether we hog resources or
not.  That unfortunately encourages the kind of "slash and burn" mentality
where people grab what they can as long as it doesn't cost them any more.

Altruism aside, we all have good self-interest reasons for following the
guidelines of this list.  The more unwanted material that is posted, the
more that subcribers will be frustrated by having to sift through the
junk to find the good stuff.  This will discourage some from participating
in the list altogether, and we lose some potentially valuable contributors.

If you reply to a posting, please snip out as much of the quoted portion
of the reply as you can.  This will help draw attention to what remains.
If someone really wants to see the whole posting that you are replying to,
they can always look it up in the archives.  If you retain large quotes in
your reply, people are just going to skip them anyway.  The little extra
time that you take to make your posting more compact will be multiplied
by several hundred as it saves time over and over again for the large
number of subscribers.  They are your friends, so treat them accordingly.

-Robert Scott
 Ypsilanti, Michigan