Shenan
Sat Aug 02 10:25:18 CDT 2008
<snipped>
Want to read more?
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.security/browse_frm/thread/d15e6b0861171443/8d82fd27f703e5af#8d82fd27f703e5af
Paul Adare - MVP wrote:
> If you're going to do this:
Shenan Stanley wrote:
> How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
>
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
Paul Adare - MVP wrote:
> And do this:
Shenan Stanley wrote:
> In reference to your last paragraph...
Paul Adare - MVP wrote:
> Doesn't it behoove you to follow your own advice?
>
> If you're responding to a specific paragraph, especially the last
> one, do you really need to quote the entire article?
If by article you mean the "last response in this entire conversation" -
then I can tell you why I left it whole.
Short answer:
You have to know the point-of-view of the person asking the questions being
referred to in order to understand the questions and answers I chose to
give. The background information needed to be left.
Longer answer:
The responder chose to put no reference to the entire conversation they were
responding to. This - to me - was a bad choice - but I respected it as they
made whole points, not really referencing much except to (and they stated
it) summarize the past conversation.
My response was directed at the last paragraph of questions by the poster;
however, the questions (and answers) would have no real context if I had
left out the parts above it (the summarization(s) the poster had written.)
Leaving the posters points in gave the necessary context - as they posted
that as a whole and I fully intended to leave it as a whole.
Many times people do not do this - they choose to pull things out of the
body of the message they are responding to and while their response makes
sense in that microcosm of their own creation - it may not address the
actual points the original person intended to get across. I was addressing
the concerns they had presented as a whole but made sure I pointed out I was
answering the questions they had given clearly in reference to the concerns
they had presented earlier.
After all - If I had only quoted only the last paragraph:
"So -- the people responsible for this at Microsoft have been asleep at the
switch, and nobody has called them to task? Surely this can't be beyond
Microsoft's ability to fix? And surely there's someone up there with enough
of a grasp of the importance of protecting passwords (and protecting user
confidence) to take it on?"
How do you know - out of just that - it is a discussion on (quoting the OP
earlier), "... Windows Explorer is given an FTP URL, prompts for a password,
and unexpectedly retains and displays it in plain text in the Address
history dropdown ..."? How would you know what I was referencing with the
part of my response, '... that you want to dismiss as "beside the
point"....'?
You could argue that if someone wanted to know more - they could find the
posting and read it in its entirety... However - given what I replied to and
quoted was small; that would have been choosing to leave out things, perhaps
for my own purpose, thereby creating my own microcosm from which to
answer... Or - putting it bluntly - I believed it would have been lazy and
inconsiderate to the original posters intentions. Not to mention, not
everyone knows how to locate entire archives of postings - thus why I
sometimes also post the Google Groups link (such as now) to the archival of
the post in its entirety at the beginning of the response. ;-)
--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html