[Greenbuilding] Energy and the Internet

[Speireag Alden]

On 2007, Dec 04, at 10:45, bilrob at silcom.com wrote:

> Is this over quoting thing a posted rule or something that some  
> want for
> personal reasons?

     It is a pretty basic tenet of netiquette.  It is ignored more  
and more as top-quoting becomes the norm, mainly thanks to default  
settings in Microsoft products.  There are lists where it is an  
enforced rule.  I am on one, and it stays on topic very nicely and is  
much more readable than many others I am on.

     It is not a posted rule per se on this list, but avoiding  
overquoting is a good thing on any list, for several reasons.  I  
alluded to them in my original response, but I'll expand on them here:

     o  Some of our list members pay for their network traffic by the  
byte.  This is especially true in other countries.
     o  Many of our list members connect via dial-up, so large  
messages cost them more time, and if they pay by the minute, more money.
     o  Our host, CREST, buys the servers which run the list, and the  
data storage which archives it.  CREST also buys the power to run  
these servers and storage devices.

     So, overquoting has several negative consequences.  Most of  
these don't fall directly on the individual overquoter, and so  
there's not much incentive to stop.

     The littering analogy, however, is reasonably apt.  If I litter,  
then the negative consequences don't fall directly on me.  However,  
down the line there are negative consequences on other people, and  
some of those come back to me.

     This is not a bad example of why long feedback loops are part of  
our environmental problems.  Short feedback loops are very  
effective:  put your hand too close to a fire, pain.  Long feedback  
loops, well, they're easier to ignore.  In fact, the longer they get,  
the less likely we are to be aware of them at all, and as they say,  
ignorance is weakness.

     But what if you could put your hand in the fire and someone else  
got burned?  There's not as much incentive to walk across the room to  
get a poker.  However, the folks who are getting burned might  
appreciate it.

-Speireag.