PLEASE READ -- tips for successful posting for the Achalasia Group

[Guest guest]

We have a lot of new members, so I'm reposting some earlier posts of mine. A

lot of people aren't familiar with how work, so hopefully this

information will be helpful for some of our new members.

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On behalf of everyone who is on " digest " mode, where the day's messages are

lumped together into one big email, I have a small request.

When replying to a message, if your email program is configured to quote the

message you're replying to at the end of your text, PLEASE only quote the ONE

message that you're replying to and cut off any unnecessary text. If you're

replying online from the website, please delete any unnecessary text from the

reply box as well. (It only takes a second or two to highlight the unnecessary

parts and hit the delete button!)

Because Digest mode lists every post one after another, it makes it extremely

difficult to follow where one email stops and the next one starts when there are

a dozen different old quoted emails at the end of every post.

Also, formatting (fonts, colors, bolding, italics, etc) doesn't show up on

Digest mode like it does on the website or in individual emails, so what may be

very easy to distinguish with formatting (if each quoted email is a different

color or different font, for example) is like one big huge same-text message

without the formatting.

To give an example, imagine that there are five messages in one digest email.

They would appear one after another, like this:

Message 1

Message 2

Message 3

Message 4

Message 5

Simple and easy to follow, not a problem.

However, if the first message was someone replying to a previous message

(written by person A for this example), if they included Person A's message at

the end of their post, the list would look like this:

Message 1

quoting Message A

Message 2

Message 3

Message 4

Message 5

If person #2 is replying to person 1, then they end up quoting both 1 and A, so

the list would look like this:

Message 1

quoting Message A

Message 2

quoting Message 1

quoting quoting Message A

Message 3

Message 4

Message 5

If person 3 is replying to person 2, and they end up quoting 2, who also quoted

1 and A, then the list would look like this:

Message 1

quoting Message A

Message 2

quoting Message 1

quoting quoting Message A

Message 3

quoting Message 2

quoting quoting Message 1

quoting quoting quoting Message A

Message 4

Message 5

When person 4 joins in, the list would look like this:

Message 1

quoting Message A

Message 2

quoting Message 1

quoting quoting Message A

Message 3

quoting Message 2

quoting quoting Message 1

quoting quoting quoting Message A

Message 4

quoting Message 3

quoting quoting Message 2

quoting quoting quoting Message 1

quoting quoting quoting quoting Message A

Message 5

And when the fifth person joins in, we have

Message 1

quoting Message A

Message 2

quoting Message 1

quoting quoting Message A

Message 3

quoting Message 2

quoting quoting Message 1

quoting quoting quoting Message A

Message 4

quoting Message 3

quoting quoting Message 2

quoting quoting quoting Message 1

quoting quoting quoting quoting Message A

Message 5

quoting Message 4

quoting quoting Message 3

quoting quoting quoting Message 2

quoting quoting quoting quoting Message 1

quoting quoting quoting quoting quoting Message A

A digest email that has five actual messages in reality now contains the text of

TWENTY emails, most of them duplicates of duplicates of duplicates. Now imagine

the situation when each digest actually contains 25 original messages (which is

how many there usually are) which all quote other emails, and you'll see what a

problem this can get to be for those of us trying to keep up with the group via

Digest mode! And heaven help us all when someone who is on Digest mode replies

and quotes THE ENTIRE DIGEST in the process -- it happens more often than you

realize!

(I once copy/pasted a digest email like this into my word processing program....

even though it only had 25 actual messages in it, it was SIXTY-TWO pages long

because of all the unnecessarily quoted messages -- they really do add up

quickly when they are compounded like this!)

For those of you who get an individual email with each posting (instead of the

Daily Digest mode), it's not a big deal to have all that extra stuff quoted at

the end, because you just stop reading when you get to the person's sign-off;

it's easy to ignore the quoted text underneath.

And having just one email quoted (the most recent one, as in the one that's

actually being replied to) can sometimes actually be helpful, so we know exactly

who/what you're replying to. (Or you can also just quote the one portion you're

referring to, saying " Jane Doe wrote: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX " , delete the rest, and

then write your response underneath.)

But when you have to scroll thru all the messages top to bottom in Digest mode,

scanning all the quotes of quotes of quotes just trying to find where the next

actual message starts.... that gets tedious, and it's a factor in whether many

of us can read any of the posts at all. And I think we can all agree that this

group is way too important to have anyone miss out on reading the posts! )

Debbi in Michigan

PS -- if replying to this big long post of mine, please don't quote the whole

thing with all the lists of numbers, etc! The subject line will be enough for

us to know what you're replying to.... if we get quotes of people quoting this

and then getting quoted by other people, with an email this long the list will

NEVER end! LOL

PPS -- if you read the messages via Digest mode and would also appreciate this

courtesy, please chime in and say so! I've suggested this (limiting the quotes)

in years past and been bashed for trying to " boss people around " on the message

board, only to find out later that there were dozens of people who felt the same

way but never said anything. We're a pretty good group of " family " here, and I

daresay that most people would be happy to cooperate if they realized how many

people are affected by this -- it's just one of those situations where if you've

never received a digest email before, you don't even realize what a problem it

can be. So speak up! We're all in this together!

PPPS -- if anyone would like to see an example of a Digest mode email, feel free

to email me directly and I'll send you one. If you aren't able to keep up with

all the individual emails or simply don't like having your inbox bombarded with

twenty different emails just from this group, it really is a convenient way to

keep up with the message board. If anyone wants to try it out, you can switch to

Digest mode and then switch back if you don't like it -- switching just involves

a few clicks of your mouse, nothing complicated.

PPPPS -- if you made it this far, you deserve an award! LOL

========================

Just thought I'd bring this up, for those who aren't aware: uses a

Spam Filter in an attempt to keep inappropriate messages from going out to

through their groups. While I think we can all agree that reducing spam is a

GOOD thing, unfortunately there are many times when legitimate messages can get

caught by the Spam Filter because they include an inordinate number of quotes of

quotes of quotes of quotes of replied emails.

Many people have their email program set up to automatically quote the original

message when they hit " reply " . If A sends an email and B replies, B's email

includes A's email at the bottom. If C then replies to B's email, C's email

includes B's and A's emails as well. By the time we get the tenth person

chiming in on the subject, each person's reply could be ten pages long because

it also includes the quotes of the original emails from A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H, and I.

All this unnecessary volume in the email triggers the Spam Filter at ,

which blocks that person's response from coming through to the group at all.

Until a group moderator signs in to the website and manually reads each blocked

email and individually approves them (if legitimate) or deletes them (if Spam),

the message won't show on the group's message board website, nor will it come

through to anyone's email.

In order to prevent your messages from getting delayed in this manner, you can

simply highlight and delete all the " extra " messages included in the quoted

material at the bottom of your email. You can either delete all of the old

messages, or just keep the most recent one to which you are replying so people

have a reference point for your message. Depending on the subject matter, there

may be no need for quoted material at all.

Here's an example: If the subject is " what helps your Spasm Pains go away? " , it

makes perfect sense to just list what works for you, without needing to quote

all the people who posted before you. But if someone replies to that and asks

if anyone had experience using Drug XYZ to stop spasm pains, then it would make

sense to quote that particular email when replying (presuming, of course, that

you do have experience with using Drug XYZ!), since that's a specific response

to a certain type of request.

These are obviously not " rules " for posting on this message board -- this is an

open forum and within certain guidelines, people can post however they wish.

But since most people aren't familiar with the " behind the scenes " aspect of

(and because I *do* have experience in this, as I am / have been a

moderator for approx. 20 different over the past decade), I thought

it might be helpful to let people know about the Spam Filter, and how to prevent

it from delaying your messages.

========================

Thanks for reading!

Debbi (aka Pepto Deb) in Michigan

[Guest guest]

I agree, and made it to the end!

[Guest guest]

>

> I agree, and made it to the end!

WINNER! WE HAVE A WINNER!

Sorry, your prize is just a " thank you " .... nursing students tend to be a broke

lot! ;o)

Debbi in Michigan