I was overly concise in my response, and a number of people have written to
correct me on this. So I'm writing to apologize, and clarify what I meant
here.
Someone:
That's a feature, not a bug. It allows people to read things in
context. Not a problem from my perspective as long as the quoted
material is at the bottom of the message.
Me:
NO, see, my e-mail package has this "feature". It lets me read mail in
threads. I don't need people to help it out.
Owen (and others with similar messages):
Well, Joe, you're not everyone, and the quotations by many of the
people are of great help to some of us, me included.
I have no problem with relevant and concise quotes that help us understand
the issue being addressed. My response was aimed at someone who felt that
the entire thread should be preserved in each and every message -- this is
completely unnecessary!
If someone wants to read the entire thread, they should use a threaded mail
reader. The messages themselves should contain only enough quoted
information to assist in understanding the response.