Two Suggestions on Formatting Follow-Up Posts

[Koontz John E]

Follow ups are the soul of a discussion list, and I've been noticing
recently, not entirely from the Siouan list, that there are two approaches
to formatting follow ups that materially improve the readability of a
list.

1) Always edit down the material in the original liberally.  Don't include
the whole original post.  It is seldom necessary to include more than
those bits of the immediately post that you wish to address. Once in a
while you may end up needing to include parts of posts before the one you
are responding to.  There's a certain superficial honesty in including
everything, but posts in a given thread get longer and longer when this is
done, and it is wasteful of time and space.  People who want the whole
message can always refer back.  If they didn't keep a copy, they can look
at the archives.  If you edit the original(s) to the minimum necessary to
justify your response, it is easier for others to follow your thoughts.
The author of the original post can always complain if you take their
remarks out of context.

2) Put your comments after the original material on which you are
commenting, not in front of it.  Humans process things better in topic and
comment order.  You can write an introduction if you feel you need it for
initial context.

These are not presented as hard and fast rules, but only as suggestions.