From news.spc.edu!news.new-york.net!newspeer1.nac.net!newspeer.monmouth.com!newsfeed.direct.ca!news.netfunny.com!funny-request Sat Mar 13 23:44:14 1999 Xref: news.spc.edu rec.humor.funny:8041 Newsgroups: rec.humor.funny From: pjie2@hermes.cam.ac.uk (Peter Ellis) Subject: To quote, or not to quote Keywords: laugh, original, computers Approved: funny-request@netfunny.com Path: news.spc.edu!news.new-york.net!newspeer1.nac.net!newspeer.monmouth.com!newsfeed.direct.ca!news.netfunny.com!funny-request Message-ID: Date: Sat, 13 Mar 1999 19:30:00 PST Lines: 51 To quote, or not to quote; That is the question. Whether 'tis cluefuller on the Net to re-post The tos and fros of diverse opinions, Or to take arms against such attributions, And, by excision, end them. To trim, to snip: No more, and by a snip to say we end The widows and the thousand orphaned words That posts are heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To trim, to snip. To snip, perchance too much. Ay, there's the rub, For in that joyous chop the sense we lose When we have taken out the fluff and dross Must give us pause. There's the factor That makes calamity of so long threads. For who would bear the tos and fros of chat, Th' cascader's screed, the geek's anality, The pain of misplacéd tags, the reeking trolls, The cliquiness of in-jokes, and the flames That studied satire draws from clueless fools, When he himself might his quietus make With a mere bobbit? Who would cudgel brains To write a piece, witty and thoughtful too, But that the hope of making people laugh, That blesséd gift of humour from whose touch No traveller is safe, spurs on the soul, And makes us rather bear those ills we read Than carve them up,and mayhap lose the joke? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And Usenet posters of great sense and content In this confusion quote more than they should, And lose the name of Clueful. Read you, now, The fair Emilia! [1] Nymph, in thy reminders Be all my posts remembered. -- rec.humor.funny is a moderated newsgroup. If you are seeing postings in the group other than from netfunny.com then your site's software is misconfigured. Write your site's admin (usenet@yoursite) and ask them to make sure RHF and RHF.reruns are configured as "moderated." This joke's link: http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/99/Mar/toquote.html