General Forum Request: Save Bandwidth!

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 8:16 am

Mark, you might move this to a different topic, but I think it's important so I'm posting it here.

A general, polite request to everyone: when you respond to a post to the forum, please delete the previous quoted message(s) below your new post! This uses unneccessary Internet bandwidth, and for those of us reading the posts on the web, it causes massive amounts of extra scrolling to read a series of messages. It's simple---just select anything with a > in front of it and hit delete.

I know it doesn't matter as much if you're reading the posts via email. So I'm asking this as both a courtesy to those of us who read on the web...as well as in the name of being a good "Eco-Internet" citizen!

Thanks much,
Scott

Post by **brianvh** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 9:30 am

As a non-web reader I'd actually request the opposite: there's been many
times when I've read a reply to something and have no idea what they are
talking about. Drives me crazy. Perhaps the compromise is to cut out
salient snippets and delete the rest.

Doesn't the web list come chunked by individual messages? You just stop
reading and go to the next. But not using up bandwidth makes some sense.

Brian Vant-Hull
301-646-1149

On Thu, 14 Apr 2005, Scott wrote:
>
> A general, polite request to everyone: when you respond to a post to the forum,
> please delete the previous quoted message(s) below your new post! This
> uses unneccessary Internet bandwidth, and for those of us reading the
> posts on the web, it causes massive amounts of extra scrolling to read a
> series of messages.
>
> I know it doesn't matter as much if you're reading the posts via email.
> So I'm asking this as both a courtesy to those of us who read on the
> web...as well as in the name of being a good "Eco-Internet" citizen!
>
> Thanks much,
> Scott

Post by **mcelrah** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 10:31 pm

This strikes me as in the same league with the engineer on a nuclear
submarine I was on who went around turning off lights "to save
neutrons". With one peer-to-peer file sharing program taking up as
much BW as all the e-mails on the global net, e-mail BW may be "too
cheap to meter"... - Hugh

On 14 Apr 2005, at 09:30, Vant-Hull - Brian wrote:

>
>
> As a non-web reader I'd actually request the opposite: there's been
> many
> times when I've read a reply to something and have no idea what they
> are
> talking about. Drives me crazy. Perhaps the compromise is to cut out
> salient snippets and delete the rest.
>
> Doesn't the web list come chunked by individual messages? You just
> stop
> reading and go to the next. But not using up bandwidth makes some
> sense.
>
> Brian Vant-Hull
> 301-646-1149
>
> On Thu, 14 Apr 2005, Scott wrote:
>>
>> A general, polite request to everyone: when you respond to a post to
>> the forum,
>> please delete the previous quoted message(s) below your new post! This
>> uses unneccessary Internet bandwidth, and for those of us reading the
>> posts on the web, it causes massive amounts of extra scrolling to
>> read a
>> series of messages.
>>
>> I know it doesn't matter as much if you're reading the posts via
>> email.
>> So I'm asking this as both a courtesy to those of us who read on the
>> web...as well as in the name of being a good "Eco-Internet" citizen!
>>
>> Thanks much,
>> Scott
>
>

Post by **markc** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 1:24 am

[Yeah, this is an off-topic thread for the forum, but I agree that it's
got to come up at least once.... I'll move any future discussions about
this elsewhere.]

For me, whether I'm reading a text email message delivered
directly to me, or if I'm reading a web-version of that message....

I can't stand it when people blindly reply to someone else's
message, and leave the entire contents of the original message intact.

Every single person participating in the forum has already seen that
message. They don't need to see it yet again via someone else's reply.

Hence this plea : Have some pity on your fellow pilots! Take a few
moments to edit your posts, and include only those portions
from the original message for which you have something to say in
response.

Kinda keeps things moving along, ya know?

We now return you to your regular forum....

--mark

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 10:34 am

Here, here Mark!

Scott

---
"A Delete key is a terrible thing to waste."

bustedwing2 · Post by **bustedwing2** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 1:11 pm

I'm so confused,the reply button posta the previous message along with the reply?

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 1:56 pm

bustedwing2 wrote:I'm so confused,the reply button posta the previous message along with the reply?

Yes...most email programs (Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Eudora, Hotmail, Gmail, etc.) have an option somewhere where you can choose whether or not you want to automatically quote the previous message when you click "Reply."

They almost all use the " > " symbol at the beginning of each line for the quoted (previous) message.

So my suggestion is...find that option, and DISable it.

Scott

PS - Quoting the previous message is fine if needed to clarify your response. (See my quote above.) But "good Internet citizenship" means judiciously editing the quoted message, so you only quote the part of it that's relevant to what you have to say.

jimrooney · Post by **jimrooney** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 8:54 pm

I'll chime in on the "doesn't matter to me" side of things....

Personally, I don't like all the >>> stuff, but I'm a web only user.... I can understand how email only people would like to have the previous message included. As far as I'm concerned, if it helps people out, then I'm happy to scroll on by it.

Jim

Post by **markc** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 12:57 am

jimrooney wrote: Personally, I don't like all the >>> stuff, but I'm a web only user.... I can understand how email only people would like to have the previous message included.
Jim

In the extreme case of a very long and detailed post like Paul A's :

http://chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=372

Some of the email-based replies were along the lines of:

"Glad you're ok Paul!"

Which was then followed by the entire content of Paul's post.
Web *or* email, having to see the entire thing all over again
is kind of a waste of time, ya know?

(Some people have DSL, so probably doesn't matter to them.
But others don't want to shell out the $$ for that level of access.
Myself included! Given that work is on the computer all damn day,
I could care less about download speed at home.

)

I edited the web-version of Paul's thread, removing four complete
copies of his original post from the replies that others made. I
think most would agree that the result is a lot more concise, readable,
and (most importantly) useful ; something that we can refer
pilots back to, to learn from.

So... you know... just asking people to take a few moments to
check their replies, and cut out stuff that isn't really needed.

And if you don't know what happens when you hit 'Reply' in your
email software, take a few moments to read some documentation
or help files.

I'll close this thread in the HG forum. But if anyone wants to continue
over in General Discussion, feel free!!

--mark c.

Post by **mcelrah** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 4:26 am

Sorry guys, I just saw that a couple of short-replies-to-long-posts
came from me - but please notice that I *did* edit out the originals
from a couple of others. I'm trying - but the !@#$% technology should
be our servant and not the reverse! Seems like a fault of the forum
format if this is bothersome... - Hugh

On 16 Apr 2005, at 00:57, markc wrote:

> jimrooney wrote:
>
>
> Personally, I don't like all the >>> stuff, but I'm a web only
> user.... I can understand how email only people would like to have the
> previous message included.
> Jim
>
>
> In the extreme case of a very long and detailed post like Paul A's :
>
>
>

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