Added helpful quoting hints from Martin Wille

[SVN r20819]

discussion_policy.htm

@@ -21,12 +21,23 @@
     <td><a href="index.htm"><font face="Arial" color="#FFFFFF"><big>More</big></font></a></td>
   </tr>
 </table>
+
 <h1>Boost Discussion Policy</h1>
 <p>Email discussion is the tie that binds boost members together into a community.
 If the discussion is stimulating and effective, the community thrives. If
 the discussion degenerates into name calling and ill will, the community withers
 and dies.</p>
-<h2>Acceptable topics</h2>
+
+<h2>Contents</h2>
+<dl>
+  <dt><a href="#acceptable">Acceptable Topics</a><dd>
+      <dt><a href="#unacceptable">Unacceptable Topics</a><dd>
+          <dt><a href="#quoting">Quoting and Message Size</a><dd>
+              <dt><a href="#behavior">Prohibited Behavior</a><dd>
+                  <dt><a href="#culture">Culture</a><dd>
+                      </dl>
+
+<h2><a name="acceptable"></a>Acceptable topics</h2>
 <ul>
   <li>Queries to determine interest in a possible library submission.</li>
   <li>Technical discussions about a proposed or existing library, including bug
@@ -38,7 +49,7 @@ and dies.</p>
 </ul>
 <p>Other topics related to boost development may be acceptable, at the discretion of moderators. If unsure, go ahead and post. The moderators
 will let you know.</p>
-<h2>Unacceptable topics</h2>
+<h2><a name="unacceptable"></a>Unacceptable topics</h2>
 <ul>
   <li>Advertisements for commercial products.</li>
   <li>Requests for help getting non-boost code to compile with your compiler.
@@ -47,12 +58,64 @@ will let you know.</p>
     newsgroup instead.</li>
   <li>Job offers.</li>
   <li>Requests for solutions to homework assignments.</ul>
-<h2>Message size</h2>
+<h2><a name="quoting"></a>Quoting and Message Size</h2>
-<p>The mailing list software automatically limits message and attachment size to 
+
-a reasonable amount, typically 75K, which is adjusted from time-to-time by the 
+<p>Please <b>limit the amount of quoted text</b> in replies to this
-moderators.. This limit is a courtesy to those who rely on dial-up Internet 
+list.  Some people have to pay for, or wait for, each byte that they
-access.</p>
+download from the list.  More importantly, it will save time and make
-<h2>Prohibited behavior</h2>
+your post more valuable when readers do not have to find out which
+exact part of a previous message you are responding to.
+
+<p>A common and very useful approach is to cite the small fractions of
+the message you are actually responding to and to put your response
+directly beneath each citation, with a blank line separating them for
+readability:
+
+<blockquote>
+<pre>
+
+&gt; Some part of a paragraph that you wish to reply to goes 
+&gt; here; there may be several lines.
+
+Your response to that part of the message goes here.  There may,
+of course, be several lines.
+
+&gt; The second part of the  paragraph that is relevant to your 
+&gt; reply goes here; agiain there may be several lines.
+
+Your response to the second part of the message goes here.
+...
+
+</pre>
+</blockquote>
+
+For more information about effective use of quotation in posts, see <a
+href="http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html">this helpful
+guide</a>.
+
+<p>A summary of the foregoing thread is only needed after a long
+discussion, especially when the topic is drifting or a result has been
+achieved in a discussion.  The mail system will do the tracking that
+is needed to enable mail readers to display message threads (and every
+decent mail reader supports that).
+
+<p>If you ever have to refer to single message earlier in a thread or
+in a different thread then you can use a URL to the <a
+href="mailing_lists.htm#archive">message archives</a>. tinyurl.com can
+help to keep those URLs short. Citing the relevant portion of a
+message you link to is often helpful (if the citation is small).
+
+<p>Don't forget, it's a single writer but there are many readers.
+So, saving some time for the readers is worth spending extra
+time when writing a message.
+
+<p>The mailing list software automatically limits message and
+attachment size to a reasonable amount, typically 75K, which is
+adjusted from time-to-time by the moderators.. This limit is a
+courtesy to those who rely on dial-up Internet access.
+</p>
+
+<h2><a name="behavior"></a>Prohibited behavior</h2>
 <p>Prohibited behavior will not be tolerated. The moderators will ban
 postings by abusers.</p>
 <h3>Flame wars</h3>
@@ -71,7 +134,7 @@ troublesome compiler? No, but be wary of overdoing it.</p>
 While off-topic posts are often well meaning and not as individually corrosive
 as other abuses, cumulatively the distraction damages the effectiveness of
 discussion.</p>
-<h2>Culture</h2>
+<h2><a name="culture"></a>Culture</h2>
 <p>In addition to technical skills, Boost members value collaboration,
 acknowledgement of the help of others, and a certain level of politeness. Boost
 membership is very international, and ranges widely in age and other
@@ -129,4 +192,4 @@ www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>)</p>
 
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