Re: The List Standard
Ted Hilts wrote in Article <[🔎] 461AA200.5040908@telus.net> posted to
gmane.linux.debian.user:
> Thunderbird runs with threads beginning with the first issue ins the
> subject line and then all successive emails related are tied together in
> a descending fashion. I take this to mean that one can first see the
> first issue and follow downwards at other inputs as long as the subject
> remains the same.
I'm pretty sure Thunderbird supports threading. Threading and subject
headers are not related to each other.
> However, most businesses do just the opposite either leaving off the
> original or piling their reply in an ascending fashion.
> This creates a problem for me because my mail client wants me to put the
> next message at the bottom and positions the cursor to this will
> happen. Also, there are no upward threading that I know of. But a lot
> of people expect a reply at the top.
Not in the real world, no.
http://wiki.ursine.ca/Best_Online_Quoting_Practices
> What I have begun to do is tell them to go to the bottom to get at my
> reply so they can first see what they have previously said which they
> often forget or get it wrong.
Then the quoting has been ineffectively framed or the person responding
missed the key point.
> However, I also notice that many people in the list snip out stuff so that
> when the next person responds it is possible they do not have the same
> context and the same information and so go off in a different direction.
This is a Good Thing(tm). Removing parts that you think are irrelevant make
it obvious whether or not you're missing the point based on what you're
responding to.
> Have I got it all wrong or are there conventions we should all be
> observing. I usually respond to a part of the original not by embedding
> remarks into the original email (as some do) but by copying the part
> down to the bottom quoted and followed by my email suggestion that way
> the original and all following emails that preceded mine are preserved.
Bottom posting considered harmful, since it's often just as context
destroying and bandwidth intensive as top posting for pretty much the same
reasons. If you're not going to bother framing your response, why bother
quoting at all?
--
Paul Johnson
Email and IM (XMPP & Google Talk): baloo@ursine.ca
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