readability

I want to take a moment to agree strongly with Seth Austen about posting
styles and the readability (or lack thereof) of this list. For a long time,
I have had inadequate time to follow the discussions on this list. Now,
when I try to get back into it, I find it virtually impossible to follow.
The main reason is the one Mr. Austen cited: a typical post seems to consist
of many lines cut and pasted from previous messages, often with many
generations of >>> and badly wrapped lines, followed by a few lines of new
material. This posting style, in addition to making the digests
unnecessarily bulky, is very difficult to read. The notable exception is
Margo Schulter, whose posts are always well considered, well written, and
carefully formatted. They have a beginning, a middle, and an end, unlike
the "blaterstream" that fills most of the list.

If you have something worthwhile to say, why not take some time to say it
clearly? Remember, you're not just exchanging email with the person whose
post your replying to, you're writing to a forum with 400+ readers. It may
be that some of you are saying something significant, but I'm damned if I
can tell.

--DBD
==========================================================================
David B. Doty jinetwk@dnai.com
Just Intonation Network http://www.dnai.com/~jinetwk
Editorial:(650) 694-4727 535 Stevenson Street
JI Store: (415) 864-8123 San Francisco, CA 94103
FAX: (415) 864-8726

----- Original Message -----
From: <JINETWK@DNAI.COM>
To: <tuning@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2001 5:04 PM
Subject: [tuning] readability

David B. Doty wrote:

> I have had inadequate time to follow the discussions on this list. Now,
> when I try to get back into it, I find it virtually impossible to follow.

>...

> If you have something worthwhile to say, why not take some time to say it
> clearly? Remember, you're not just exchanging email with the person whose
> post your replying to, you're writing to a forum with 400+ readers. It
may
> be that some of you are saying something significant, but I'm damned if I
> can tell.
>
> --DBD

I think we all agree with this, specially when the discussion is not made by
us.

I think there are some concepts which can make these messages more readable:

1. Always put a clear and specific title ( subject ) for the discussion,
which may be suitable for all expected replies.
2. Always reply to the message with the same subject, so the reader can
organize these messages by his e-mail application ( if he is using one )
then he can follow the discussions.
3. Change the subject when and only when you are opening a new discussion
( and if replying to a specific message put the whole section from the
message
you are replying to ).

Since some time I've opened a discussion about "MIDI files and tunings", it
was all about how to make microtonal with MIDI files and MIDI devices, now
it is all about ???

Rami Vitale