[GTALUG] email etiquette.

[Howard Gibson]

On Tue, 15 Mar 2016 16:02:34 -0400
Alvin Starr <alvin at netvel.net> wrote:

> 
> Hugh Redelmeier posted a message to the list about my posting replies at 
> the top of messages.
> 
> We have had a bit of a discussion offline about this but Hugh suggested 
> we take it back to the list and see what the feelings of others are.
> 
> My position is that posting at the top is most efficient and the easiest 
> for the reader.
> As for clean up I agree that long email chains can become a pain 
> specially when answers are posted at the bottom.
> I tend to clean up when the messages get to a couple of screens and 
> replace the removed section with [snip].


Alvin,

   I prefer to post at the bottom.  My assumption is that you and everyone else reads through the message I am replying to and understands my context.  I, helpfully, delete the stuff from your message I am not replying to, making everyone's read more efficient.  This is an important point.  Back in the day, you would read through the original messages, over and over again, the xecond reply, the third reply, the fourth reply all at 300_baud, the fifth reply, and the sixth replay, followed by some literary gem like the sentence "Fuck you, asshole.".  You never get back the time you spent.

   Windows people scream at you when you reply anywhere other than at the top.  This does protect you from people who do not delete unnecessary stuff from the email.  Space on mail servers is cheap now.  Scrolling down multiple messages can get interesting if you are not careful.  


-- 
Howard Gibson 
hgibson at eol.ca
howard.gibson at teledyneoptech.com 
jhowardgibson at gmail.com
http://home.eol.ca/~hgibson