12 Oct
2012
12 Oct
'12
6:42 a.m.
On Fri, 12 Oct 2012, jim s wrote:
On 10/12/2012 12:00 AM, Tom Sparks wrote:
That certainly isn't a problem with this email list.
PS: why cant you scroll down to the bottom of the
message and type
there?
three reasons.
Many mailing lists add a large amount of advertising / skred to the
bottom of postings. Messing with it causes html posting of the message to
explode.
Only if the email client itself is poorly designed and/or broken. Out of
the 30 or so lists that I'm a member of, including a lot of old eGroups
(now Yahoo) lists, I also don't recall ever having this problem with any
of them.
So posting at the top where it is clear means I
don't see the crap or
unleash it on the thread.
...but then said "crap" is still being sent out across the listserv
instead of being trimmed away...
most email clients seem to default to top posting of
replies. I use a
large number of them both programs and web based.
I wouldn't say most. /Some,/ but not all default to doing so, but every
single email client or service that I'm familiar with can be configured to
start the reply either before -or- after the quoted message (although
sometimes you have to really dig to find the setting). Some clients even
give you the option of not quoting any of the message you are replying to.
It isn't worth fighting it. This list drew a top
posting of replies by
Thunderbird.
I reformat these top-post messages and reply in-line. I can't see how a
proper reply could be written without doing so.
For most threads, I don' t need to scroll past all
the replies if I'm
following the thread.
The underlying issue is that replies should reformat and trim the material
to what is being replied to, then no one has to scroll past stuff that
isn't relevant.
I can see what I'm replying to when discussing
things.
Except it makes it harder for others to follow the discussion thread.
Only when I want to post something detailed and
usually when that
involves copy / pasting I'll clear the skred off the bottom of the post
if it is possible and try to compose a formatted reply with the posted
data there. Otherwise I post at the top.
I think those with a Usenet background tend to be the ones who quote
in-line.
All that said, if you think replying to some of these long email threads
is difficult, try being involved in some of the large discussions on
Wikipedia where you can't top-post or make in-lined replies. In those sort
of discussions, nesting/quoting levels, blockquotes, and clearly defined
sections become incredibly important, at least if you want people to read
what you have to say.