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Date:         Thu, 16 Jul 1998 13:45:21 -0700
Reply-To:     coyote <coyote@LIKEMINDS.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         coyote <coyote@LIKEMINDS.COM>
Subject:      Bad Posting Style
Comments: To: DavidM <dmc@CYBURBAN.COM>,
          "Christopher M. Smith" <csmith@sdsc.edu>
Comments: cc: vanagon@vanagon.com
In-Reply-To:  <35AE4EF0.5B8C@cyburban.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

>-----Original Message----- >From: DavidM >To: Vanagon@VANAGON.COM >Subject: Re: Importing a Vanagon from South Africa etc. > >Reinhold, Matthias wrote: >> -----Original Message----- >> From: John S. Cronin [mailto:john.cronin@oit.gatech.edu] >> Sent: Thursday, July 16, 1998 12:57 >> To: Reinhold, Matthias; Vanagon@VANAGON.COM >> Subject: Re: Importing a Vanagon from South Africa etc. >> >> On Jul 16, 12:40pm, Reinhold, Matthias wrote: >> >> Subject: Importing a Vanagon from South Africa etc. >> >> Has anybody ever looked into the possibility of importing a Vanagon >> from >> >> South Africa? >> >> What are the problems other than that the whole vehicle is >> 'mirrored'? >> >> What about a T2 Bus from Brasil? >> >> > Let's see - first off it needs emission controls, so a catalytic >> converter >> > and all the electronics needed to ensure it can meet the emissions >> >requirements. >> > This will probably cost a fair sum. >> >> European cars meet or exceed american emission requirements. I know >> nothing about South Africa or Brasil >> >This is absolutely not true!

This is an example of bad style, for two reasons. The poster replies to 27 lines of posting (including headers!) with one line of text. With about a second of trimming, this posting could easily have contained only 5 lines:

> From: John S. Cronin: > European cars meet or exceed american emission requirements. I know > nothing about South Africa or Brasil

This is absolutely not true!

Editing down your posts not only saves time and bandwidth, but it also hilights what you want to say. Rather than wade through unrelated text, the reader can immediately see your words. Of course, the excerpt above implies that you think that John is an expert on South American emissions, and I expect that this wasn't your intention. Perhaps the quoted text should have been trimmed even more:

> From: John S. Cronin: > European cars meet or exceed american emission requirements.

This is absolutely not true!

The second sin in this posting is that it is a negative posting without collaboration. Sorry, David, but it just doesn't work to say that something isn't true without providing corroboration or credentials. For example, if you're an expert on European emission standards, you should have said so. If you have a web reference that compares European with U.S. standards, that would be great. But simply saying 'it's not true' without evidence is meaningless. Hence, I would trim your posting even further:

[posting never sent]

Thanks for your cooperation in keeping the list meaningful.

(Sorry to pick on David, but it's a great example.)

-- /\_/\ ____ Ron 'Coyote' Lussier ( ) \ _/__ LikeMinds, Inc. coyote@likeminds.com \ / \X / 457 Bryant St. 1.415.284.6972 \_/ \/ San Francisco, CA 94107-1316


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