I agree with Mark Phillips that, "I find it hard to keep up
with the volume of mail that is sent to the reflector. " I am
not sure that an abstract will work, but taking a bit more time
to think out what you are going to say and summarizing it will
help. I still suspect that the nature of this communication is
much more like a coffee shop conversation and folks tend to give
their immediate responses. On the other hand I am someone that
really likes to think out what I say, so although there are a
number of times I thought of a response, but before I would have
worked it up, it was half a week latter, and by that time the
original post was 100 messages back. But perhaps we can pause to
sip our coffee for a few minutes before our response. What I
would like to see some more of, is ideas that people have mulled
over for a bit. I would like more of these put out as new posts
for our reaction.
Let me add a few other suggestions.
1. Try and not repeat all of the rest of the previous post.
Only use what is absolutely necessary to your response,
especially if you have almost no comments on it. There are a lot
of posts where three quarters of the message is a repeat of
original post. We all have the previous posts and this really
save space.
2. If something is more intended for an individual use private
response. This would really help cut down on the volume of mail.
3. There are times when it is important for everyone to chime in,
but sometimes there are too many "I agree posts."
-- :James F. Mahaffy e-mail: mahaffy@dordt.eduBiology Department phone: 712 722-6279Dordt College FAX 712 722-1198Sioux Center, Iowa 51250