request for opinion on alternative operand/operator classification/promotion approach

[DJ Delorie]

> The best approach is to quote selectively. Personally
> I really dislike message which have pages of quoted junk
> you have have to scroll through to find a reply. When
> more than one person starts doing this, you end up with
> a complete thread in each message.

Usenet used to reject messages with more quoted text than new text.
Perhaps we could try such a filter in our mailing list software?  It
would, of course, reject most patch approvals ;-)