Our policy on editing for EDTECH is something like a magazine's policy on
accepting an article or letter to the editor.  We don't change content,
but we do make stylistic changes to conform to our format.
 
I've become a lot more conscious of the affect of style problems, as we
shifted from thinking of the list as a somewhat ephemeral phenomena, to a
relatively permanent research and data archive, when we started gatewaying
the messages directly to the WWW.  Since most of the major search sites
are databasing our WWW site now, we're getting a different readership, and
there seems more reason to make sure what appears fits a reasonable
standard of readability and usefulness.
 
A few examples of what gets changed or added:  I have asked probably at
least 100 times for people to put their name and e-mail address in the
body of their messages at the bottom.  This is so the requotes are
correctly attributed, and also because if the name and e-mail address
isn't in the body, people write to me and ask for it (every time, I've
experimented). People won't do it, so I add it when missing.  I tried
writing them back and asking them to do it, but we get 100 messages to
approve many days, and I don't have time to correspond with 2/3 of them
asking them to add their signatures, since in the end that more than
triples the editing time.
 
Also, no matter what I say, many people requote the entire previous
message, including elaborate signatures.  So we cut quotes and requotes,
leaving an identifier and essential lines only.
 
A lot of people use Eudora with a too small font, so their lines
wrap weirdly.  If it's long, I return it, but it it's short, I
just unwrap the lines, and reformat them.
 
Typo's and spelling errors are a real question for me.  On the
one hand, leaving it in gives a better flavor for what the person
is really like.  On the other hand, any magazine editor would
fix this automatically without asking.  I usually leave it in,
unless it appears to clearly be a mistake that the person didn't
intend to post.
 
A number of people also have "cute" names for themselves, or their
school's name, or their phone number, in the From: line.  Since
we hypermail and WWW archive everything, this makes a mess of
the Index, so I fix it.
 
And on occasion, I append a clearly indicated moderator comment to
a message (for example when it asks a question about where the list
archives can be located).
 
I do agree that changing the content of someone's message without their
approval is not acceptable.  But we feel that improving the style of the
message and making it conform to a editorial standard is appropriate in
something that is posted on the WWW and may be referenced for a long time.
I think is also conforms to print editorial standards for letters to the
editor and similar correspondence.  But it is undoubtedly an area
for careful contemplation.
 
Vickie Banks
EDTECH Owner/Editor
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