Harvey:
On the lack of removing previous messages, I try to leave one or none previous message although may forget sometimes; but it is not worth combing through pages of ">" repeats on bikelist. Thank goodnes for "Today's Topics" summary at top. One solution may be to remove lines with ">" in any mutiples at the start of any line. Some people are new to email so they don't quite understand editing. There will be some garbage when ">" lines continue on next lines without ">", but they should all be together and be negligable continuity disturbance; unless thousands of pages, where the next lines after">" may also be deleted as a better sure-proof method.
I just assumed there were subliminal messages encoded in the wasted pages of ">" patterns the ebay sellers saying, "hey look at this!". Up to a billion Chinese Ebayer sellers, and ebay is only in Western countries (ebay is closing in China). Those odds are not good and fill up Google with 95% nonsense: again selling ebay merchandise or distracting useful searches for useful products.
Sorry for the editorial, but like you, just wanted to contribute to cleaning up a world reknown resource of complex bicycle expertise for the benefit of many.
Thanks,
Phil Bailey
Sarasota, FL