[HPFGU-Feedback] Mail Formats (was Re: An Elfly Reminder)

[Jordan Abel]

Dreadnought:
> Hi Jordan,
>
> Before posting in reply to this, I should just point out that I am one of the list elves myself. I
> am incredibly busy at the moment, so haven't been able to post in this discussion, even
> though I have been following it.
>
> The problem with this suggestion from *my* perspective is that in my experience, people
> often misunderstand the point that another poster was making, for whatever reason. Even
> people who do put a lot of effort into their posts.

Random832:
Wouldn't it be nice, though, in those cases if the misunderstanding
were spelled out [by being paraphrased incorrectly] than the original
poster having to guess how, or even if, they've been misread?

The original message is still there, after all. Does it really need to
be repeated? The issue of having to scroll down is still there
regardless of attributions, and attributions themselves are so
confusing. "Quoting" [if a dump of an entire paragraph from the
original can even be called that] is a shortcut anyway.

Dreadnought:
> And that would make me very worried about the idea of people paraphrasing what I said
> rather than quoting it - because if they misunderstood the point I was making, their
> paraphrasing might very well wind up not accurately representing what I said.

That's why it's an experiment. As in, to see if it would work or not.