Re: [tlug] Quoting (& Saving important info)

["Josh Glover" <jmglov@example.com>]

On 15/04/06, Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon <ronfaxon@example.com> wrote:

> Why use a footnote down out of site, forcing people to waste time
> scrolling up and down the page when you can put it into parenthesis
> (like this) right where they can see it and right where it is relevant?

Parenthetical statements and footnotes both have their place. The
former is good when you have a short aside--you can also use dashes,
like this--and the latter is good when you have something to say as a
reference to the sentence, but that you want to be read outside of the
context of the sentence. So a footnote is more of a appendix than an
aside.

Mastering the use of both is required to write well. Steve has had a
lot of practise (one would assume), writing dry economical treatises.
[1]

> One issue that has not been gone into at all - is the issue of valuable
> and informative information that is attacked by lawyers because it
> embarrasses their clients - not because it is illegal or incorrect, but
> just because they want it to go away.  People are threatened, they
> become afraid, they take the page down, and since there were nothing but
> links to the page, the info is lost to the world.  Or it could be a
> technical glitch that causes the same thing.  Yes, there is Google s
> archiving, but that's not instantaneous.  However, if someone thinks to
> replicate the data in educational e-mail, it can live on....

The thing is that you should not be making assumptions about the
desires of the rights-holder. I certainly agree with you that lawyers
use strong-arm tactics to intimidate people into silence, but if the
intimidatee wants his words to live on past the takedown, it should be
his decision to, say, post anonymously to Slashdot. :)

-Josh

[1] Speaking of which, I am enjoying "Folded, Spindled, and
Mutilated". It is dense for a non-economist, as you noted, but I am
quite interested in the basic theory of competitive markets.