Over the past 10 days, I've sent 129 emails to list subscribers about quoting too much. Almost every time this has been because they quote right down through the footers. And the number would be higher, but I try to catch multiple offenders and only send one "cut it out" request per email reading session.
The stats: Total emails sent: 127 Total recipients: 105 Recipients of 2+: 16 Top posters: 115 = 90.5% Bottom posters: 7 = 5.5% Interleaved replies: 5 = 4.0% Some people I sent warnings to used more than one style, but in those cases top posting was always one of the styles. I don't know the percentage of top posting vs. bottom posting vs. interleaved posting messages sent to the lists, but the fact is that top posters are vastly more likely to skip the step of trimming the message they are responding to -- and also much more likely to be repeat offenders. Some people received 3-4 warnings over a 10 day period. Next step is a last warning. After that comes being blocked from posting until they tell me they'll be more careful in the future. Thanks to the discussion on this list, we will be generally recommending that people *not* top post. Need to think through all the issues involved, though, because there are times when it is appropriate. Will share my thoughts on all the lists when I've got issues pretty well settled in my mind. Dan the listmom -- The iMac List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | - Epson Stylus Color 580 Printers - new at $69 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> iMac List info: <http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:imac-list@;mail.maclaunch.com> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:imac-list-off@;mail.maclaunch.com> For digest mode, email: <mailto:imac-list-digest@;mail.maclaunch.com> Subscription questions: <mailto:listmom@;lemlists.com> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/imac-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
