(Similar to) Quantity vs quality

[khess6669]

Hi,

I have read the recent posts on quantity vs quality, and I wanted to 
make some comments along a similar line that don't really follow the 
existing thread.

When I was trying to keep up on all the posts by reading the 25-
message digests, I found myself grateful whenever a short post came 
along, because it was quick to read, and usually didn't have a lot of 
irrelevant "snip quotes" to wade through.

I think someone should write some illustrated guidelines (for newbies 
and not-so-newbies) on how to construct a legible, concise, well-
organized response to a long thread. (This would include some advice 
on formatting, too! Tell people how to remove all those arrow markers 
and bad line-wraps that make some posts a nightmare to read.)

There are people who -- with the best of intentions -- construct a 
message with dozens of "snip quotes" and a few lines of commentary 
under each. While that may do justice to the people quoted, and it 
may bring together all the ideas that the current poster wants to 
respond to, it is difficult to read (and only gets worse when someone 
decides to respond to IT). It is really no better than a number of 
one-line messages all pasted sequentially into one big message.

Since we already have a ban on one-line messages (which is really a 
ban on "me too" messages -- I'm sure a clever one-line joke would not 
go amiss now and then), why not also some kind of recommended 
(voluntary) upper limit on the length of a post, along with some GOOD 
illustrative examples of how to incorporate other people's arguments 
into your own message?

Even if (as others have justifiably pointed out) the volume of 
postings to this list decreases significantly in September, the issue 
of message quality still exists, and the volume may rise again next 
summer when the students are out of school again anyway.

And finally, one more small thing. I enjoy FILKs very much, and I 
know they do not make up a large volume of posts, but I don't see how 
they fit with the main list. They do not really add to our 
understanding of canon; they are mainly pleasant diversions. Is there 
another list where they would fit better?

These are just a few thoughts I have had since joining HP4GU not so 
long ago, humbly submitted for other people to consider and 
(hopefully) comment on.

KB