Tina wrote:
In communication, it's content over format. Content can be
enhanced by prudent trimming, of course, but the point is to
get the author's idea into the reader's brain in an understandable
way. Except, maybe, here.

Some confuse "rules" with etiquette/netiquette. Etiquette/Netiquette is
an accepted guideline, not a *requirement*, and it's each person's
decision to follow it or not. Thank God, as *some* etiquette is just
plain silly.

I appreciate prudent trimming -- I hate having to scroll through miles
of already quoted and no longer pertinent s to get to the new
stuff, especially when it's only a one-line quip or insult! But I'm with
you re content over format ... and you *do* get to know, in short order,
which authors are worth scrolling through all the superfluous quotes for
and which are not.