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Archiver > GEN-NEWBIE > 1997-05 > 0864870107


From: Randy Sahr <>
Subject: Re: Servers sending/receiving mail
Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 20:41:47 -0500


Beth,
On most lists, it is best to leave just a brief part of the former
message as a referral for others on the list. On this list, with most
people being as new to the net as they are to genealogy and/or
computers, I try to leave the whole message I'm replying to. Just in
case they didn't keep a copy for themselves of what they sent. If
Nothing is included, one has a very hard time knowing what is being
answered, especially if no name is indicated at the top in a 'greeting'.

As for keeping the secondary message if the whole original is included,
I do this too, and delete the original, otherwise there is way too much
duplication in my files. (I'm a packrat and tend to keep a copy of
everything that is relevant to me, and also a lot of junk, as I recently
discovered when trying to pare down my mail files. They are over 200 MB
in size now!)

Replying at the top is common practice on most lists. I also
occasionally reply paragraph by paragraph, depending on the length of
the original message. But that gets confusing when replying to the
answer I usually receive. To avoid confusion when doing this, I delete
all parts of my own reply, leaving only the answer and then reply to
that.

BTW, apparently in England and Ireland it is considered good netiquette
to answer After the question :) But this poses problems for those who
have some sort of handicap and have to scroll all the way to the bottom
just to find the answer. And just annoys other people who have already
read all of those messages. <G>

Hope this helps Someone <G>.
Randy

Beth Sloan wrote:
>Thanks so much for the information on servers and how often they send out
> the email. I had wondered how that had worked. It was very informative.
>
> Is there a proper place to put an answer or reply to the email? Since this
> was a reply to a reply, I zapped the other messages. I guess it can be
> confusing if you don't know what I am replying to. I notice some people
> put things at the top of the message they are referring to, which seems
> more logical. Others snip and put little bits and pieces which I think is
> often confusing. Others include the whole original message and then their
> comment.

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