It is only common courtesy, if one wishes to reply to something posted on HPSCHD_L, to take a brief moment to edit out repetitions, boilerplate disclaimers, themselves already replicated numerous times by previous discourteous contributors, and other debris. I would submit that this also allows one to take a moment to edit the substance to make it as concise and error-free as possible. It is not asking too much, and anyone who defends the practice of being slovenly is deserving of public criticism.

It is not effort-free, but then, neither is learning a harpsichord piece or making a harpsichord.

I wanted to track down the source of the quotation cited below, thinking of such disparate sources as Harold Ross or Mark Twain, only to learn that it was, in fact, Blaise Pascal who said “I only made this letter longer because I had not the leisure to make it shorter.” Does any among us really think they reach the same stature as M. Pascal, and can afford themselves the same excuse?

Mes Révérends Pères, mes Lettres n'avaient pas accoutumé de se suivre de si près, ni d'être si étendues. Le peu de temps que j'ai eu a été cause de l'un et de l'autre. Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte. — Lettre XVI

Translation: “My dear Reverend Fathers, my letters did not use to follow each other so closely, nor did they use to be so extended. The little time that I have had has been the cause of both these things. I only made this letter longer because I had not the leisure to make it shorter.” — 16th letter
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