Barry Wolman asked about ways to prevent subscribers from quoting too much. It takes a lot of energy to train subscribers not to be liberal in quoting text. Many will learn, but some will ignore you, and some may insult you. Here is the form letter I used to send out to subcribers who sent out more than 4-5 lines of quoted text. As you will see, I've protected myself by mentioning the undesirability of quoting in my 'welcome' message that all new subscribers receive. ------------------------------------------------------ Hello! This is a friendly form letter, sent to all those who, in posting to OPERA-L, use excessive quotation from previous messages. In the OPERA-L WELCOME file you received upon subscribing, it reads: > Most quotations or summaries can be made in about 4-5 lines; you are > encouraged not to exceed this length. ... > Editing out unnecessary lines from the original posting makes it faster and > easier to read through your response. In addition, there are quite a few > subscribers who pay for internet access based on the length of message. > So by judiciously editing postings you will be helping others to use > their on-line time more efficiently. As someone who receives complaints from subscribers, I know and sympathize with those who must pay for their Internet connection by the size of messages. It is truly inconsiderate to be so negligent of these people. In addition, in my responsibilities as listowner of OPERA-L, I must go through the archives and MANUALLY delete unnecessary messages and quoted material. When people quote excessively, it makes my job much more laborious and time-consuming. PLEASE!! Try not to quote excessively!! In many cases you do not have to quote previous messages at all. If you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to contact me. ------------------------------------ Bob Kosovsky Student, PhD Program in Music Librarian Graduate Center Music Division City University of New York The New York Public Library [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] Listowner, [log in to unmask] Administrivia to: [log in to unmask] ------My opinions do not necessarily represent those of my institutions-------