Subj : Program Quoter - you are very welcomed
To   : alexander koryagin
From : Ardith Hinton
Date : Fri Mar 02 2018 18:00:57

Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to All:

ak>  Some people cannot write good quoted messages.
ak>  Their messages sometimes look like this:

ak>  =========Beginning of the citation==============
->   But even more exciting is this big asteriod heading our
-> way and they say it will orbit inside the area between us and all those
-> satelites in the sky.  Worst case is it hits us, and it's a big sucker.
ak> I
-> thought we had to December 22nd, but maybe the calendar was a bit off?
->
->  ->  ->  FS> Get even with them.  Don't pay any income tax.  There are
->
->  ->  FS> ARE THE MAN!!"
->  ->
->  -> And at my age, free medical, room and board, and even a funeral when
ak> I'm
->  -> shanked.  Lookin good!
ak>  =========The end of the citation================


          Yes, and by the time others have quoted the same material it may look 
even more like a dog's breakfast [British/Canadian slang used in reference to a 
mixture which evokes images of table scraps from someone else's dinner].

          I'm fortunate in that I know how to get timEd to tidy up messy quotes 
& shorten the length of lines so as to avoid confusing truncations and/or line- 
wrapping later.  I made no attempt to edit your citation because you'd provided 
us with such a great example of how *not* to quote effectively.  It seems to me 
that the purpose of language is to communicate.  Whatever we can do to make our 
own writing easier to understand increases the likelihood that others will take 
the time to read, mark, and inwardly digest what we are trying to explain.  ;-)



ak>  I've made a very useful utility "Quoter." It is a
ak>  freeware program and  designed for the people who
ak>  love participate in discussions in USENET, FIDONET
ak>  groups and also in web forums.


          Good for you!  If you've found a way to help others whose software is 
less amenable than mine to quoting neatly, I hope at least some will use it.  I 
tend to have difficulty following the logic when I can't remember who said what 
in a protracted discussion & other folks are unwilling to meet me halfway.  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/7715)

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