quoted text prefix(es)

[B. T. Raven]

Is there a way to replace the stacks of right pointing arrows prefixed to
quoted text in gnus or rmail with an abbreviation?
E.g.:
>
>>
3>
4>
...

This would prevent text with many levels of nested quotations from pushing
text so far rightward that it is forced to wrap prematurely. It seems that
it should be possible to convert to this format even email sent by a
non-conforming program:

E.g.

>4> is converted to 5>
>>6> .....  8>

This seems like a reasonable convention since so many people are migrating
to .rtf even in contexts where it is not appropriate such as Listservs ad
usenet.

Any comments for or against are welcome.
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