Housekeeping

[Penny & Bryce Linsenmayer]

No: HPFGUIDX 986

Hi --

Hope all the Americans on this list had a great Labor Day weekend.  I
wanted to address (or reiterate) a few housekeeping matters:

1.  REPLYING

Simon is right -- PLEASE don't just hit "Reply" to a long post & fail to
delete portions you're not directly responding to.   Handy guidelines
for replying (as opposed to composing a brand new post):

    a.  Check the subject Heading -- does it still make sense?  Can it
be shortened?
    b.  Delete all the egroups banners & ads at the top.  Delete all the
egroups info at the bottom.
    c.  Now -- what portions of the actual message are you replying to?
Delete everything you're not replying to.  Leave things that you are
replying to in quotes, so as to distinguish your thoughts from those of
the person you're replying to.

2.  COMBINE REPLIES INTO ONE POST WHENEVER POSSIBLE

If you have several posts where you really don't want to say much more
than 1-3 lines about each one of them, consider combining them in a
whole new post.  Simon does this effectively quite a bit.  This is
especially important if all you're going to say is "I agree" or "LOL!"
about several different posts.  In general, I think most of us would
prefer to avoid the latter ("I agree" & "LOL" type posts) altogether
though.

Even if you've got a fair bit of substance to add to several topics, it
may still be worthwhile to consider combining.  I've done this and I
know several others do as well.

The reason for my bringing this up is that I received 110 emails in a
period of about 8 hrs yesterday.  While these aren't problems for me,
many of us are dealing with slow modems, limited inbox space and/or
expensive phone charges.  My problem is simply becoming lack of time.  I
can forsee that the volume of email I'm currently receiving could
potentially become quite overwhelming if the pace continues.  So  . . .
. I certainly don't want to discourage all the active discussions we've
been having.  But, if there's a way for you to combine several replies
into one post, do it!  Please.

3.  SUBJECT HEADINGS

I know I sound like a broken record on this topic but . . . . we had
about 8 bezillion posts over the last few days that read "Re: HP &
Foccacia Bread."  Right now -- I read all the posts that go through this
list.  If the time should come when I might need to be more picky about
what I choose to read & what I choose to delete unread, I assure you
that all the "HP & Foccacia Bread" posts would have fallen into the
latter category.  Please be accurate & descriptive in your subject
headings.  Oh, Scott (I'm pretty sure it was Scott?) -- your original
post re: the Foccacia Bread was fine.  I simply object to the continued
"Re: HP & Foccacia Bread" business -- especially when the replies veered
off significantly from your original topic.

Thanks if you're still listening --

Penny