Keep it short

[Dotan Cohen]

2008/12/5 Steven Vollom <stevenvollom at sbcglobal.net>:
>> Steven, you quoted almost 40 lines to answer a one line post asking
>> you to trim your quotes.
> I don't see what you are talking about.  I responded "I am sorry, I will
> try."

Don't worry, Steven, on the Kubuntu list you can get away with murder!
At least, you can get away with things like full quoting that would
not be acceptable on the Gentoo lists. I will explain. Just remember
that I am on your side!

When you reply to an email, the original message that you are replying
to is quoted, that means that the full text of the original email is
contained in your reply. On open source mailing lists it is generally
acceptable only to quote the part of the message that you are replying
to. The rest should be erased from the message. In Thunderbird, you
must do that in the message editing window, after you click Reply.
When in doubt, quote less!

>>  Try harder! I see that you are using
>> Thunderbird, a mail client that does not hide the full text of
>> replies. So you can plainly see what you are quoting. Trim it!
>>
> I really don't understand .  Where are the 40 lines you speak of?

In that particular message, the 40 lines that I speak of is everything
that you quoted. The only part that you should have quoted was this:
----start----
Arnaud bourree wrote:
> +1
----end----

>  Are
> you with the List or just another participant?

Another participant, just like you. Nobody has any authority around
here, only experience. You are gaining experience, too, don't worry.
Everyone makes mistakes and mailing list culture shock is not unique
to you, everyone here has suffered it in the past. Those of us who
have been posting to Linux mailing lists for years made the same
mistakes that you are, most just forgot that they too were once noobs
:)

> I am willing to do
> anything to be acceptable to the List, but obviously do not understand
> you.

Don't worry, the Kubuntu list is much more forgiving than other Linux
mailing lists. The very fact that you are here means that you are
accepted, really. There is very little ivory-tower syndrome in the
Ubuntu community. Don't get stressed about it.

> Could you copy something that I have written, showing your
> corrections.  I can learn then.  I will use your example and try to copy
> it.  I can't change what I don't understand.

I explained above. Just erase everything that you are not quoting
directly. This is an example of bad quoting:
----start bad example---
>>>>> How are you?
>>>> Fine. And you?
>>> Hungry. Want to eat?
>> Yes, what shall we eat?
> Steak?
Sounds good!
----end bad example----

This is a good example taken from the above bad example:
----start good example---
> Steak?
Sounds good!
----end good example----

>> You might also want to look into Kmail, which lets one highlight the
>> parts of messages that he wants to quote. Kmail really is a great
>> email client.
>>
> I already answered this.  I have been trying to get Kmail working for
> about 2 years.  On this forum, I have requested help, copied my
> configurations to the post to expose any wrong entries.  I duplicated
> each setting from thunderbird, which works.  Show me how and I will use it.
>

I don't read every post, but I will STFA and see if I can respond to
one of your earlier posts regarding Kmail. Note that I personally use
Thunderbird as well, but only because of one Thunderbird extension
that is critical to my workflow.

Steven, we are a community and you are a welcome part of that
community. I have noticed some bad mailing list behaviour from you in
the past few days but it never bothered me enough to mention it, as
the Kubuntu list is generally very lenient. If someone gets on your
case, then don't get upset. I see that you are trying your best to be
a good list member. Everyone else sees that as well. The culture shock
will pass soon, and in a few months you will be just as annoyed at
noob posts as some people are at you right now. It's no big deal,
really.

-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://what-is-what.com
http://gibberish.co.il

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