> 7a. Is it Just Me?
>
> Is it just me, or does anyone else pass over the 8
> paragraph post? Also, why, when someone responds to a
> post, they repost the whole original post?
>
First of all, I get the digest format -- so I'll get a lot of messages in a single email, instead of each post as an individual email. I read the list of subjects, and if they don't interest me, I'm done for the day and delete the email (this is not the only listserve I participate in, wide variety of topics, so time is budgeted appropriately for me). If they interest me, I look at the ones that seem of interest.
I'm sure, when the content gets off the designated subject, I sometimes miss something that would have been of interest, but wasn't suggested in the subject line.
If posts are long, but sound interesting, I get started, and if they hold my interest, I finish. If not, I don't. A few times a year, one is of sufficient value for me to cut and paste it into a document and save it as a resource.
On one list I participate in, if I find myself making a very long post, I try to go back and put an "executive summary" paragraph at the start summing up my position, with the rest usually "making my case" for what I said; I don't think I've posted anything on this list that's so long that I've felt obliged to do so.
If some are making long posts and want more people to read them, they might try that -- e.g. -- "trip report: we won, we found a new great restaurant -- see paragraph 8 for details on the restaurant."
I also recommend that those who do NOT know how to divide a post into paragraphs learn to do so -- much easier to read and more inviting.
I try to delete the irrelevant parts of the message I'm responding to, and the irrelevant messages in the digest, and to change the subject line on my response from "digest" to the actual subject -- but sometimes I mess up and my subject is "Re: Digest Number" and my post has the whole digest (ugh, very sorry when I do that!!!). I'll once again apologize for when that happens, I know better, but make mistakes, and sometimes make the same one more than once.
--BG
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