Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Sun, 26 May 2002 16:28:06 -0700
From:      Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com>
To:        Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@online.fr>
Cc:        Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org>, rob <rob@pythonemproject.com>, "chat@freebsd.org" <chat@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: Bottom-quoting (was Re: My friends were amazed at FreeBSD...)
Message-ID:  <3CF16F86.A6E241B0@mindspring.com>
References:  <20020524143036.C67484@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> <20020524164101.P51722-100000@muheleja.eenet.ee> <20020524163603.L81843@lpt.ens.fr> <3CEECD6A.5E9BB6A6@pythonemproject.com> <20020525175149.A69827@lpt.ens.fr> <15601.2665.379231.456776@guru.mired.org> <20020526173949.GA230@lpt.ens.fr> <15601.10022.167754.574044@guru.mired.org> <20020526183504.GA472@lpt.ens.fr> <3CF165D4.A7C8E6F4@mindspring.com> <20020526225326.GB1562@lpt.ens.fr>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Rahul Siddharthan wrote:
> Terry Lambert said on May 26, 2002 at 15:46:44:
> > Business letters and other so-called "snail mail" has evolved
> > certain formate structures for the data contained therein so
> > that people can operate with certain assumptions, thereby
> > making their lives easier.  Email has done the same, even if
> > people have been slow to recognize this fact.
> 
> Funny you should say that.  All business-related or official email I
> receive, without exception -- secretaries, banks, officials, whatever
> -- uses bottom-quoting.  I in turn bottom-quote when I reply to them.
> That's what they're used to, they operate with that assumption, and it
> makes their lives easier (as you nicely put it) -- while I'm used to
> both forms so it doesn't matter to me.  (Exception: when I'm replying
> to a very specific point which is a small part of their long mail, I
> top-quote that point.)

You are wrong.  I said "business letters", not "business email".

We are talking about ettiquite in archived email discussions, not
ettiquite in physical letters.

Also not that I have already made the point that email style is often
dictated by tools, rather than by appropriateness to the task.  I
would argue that the bottom-quoting you are seeing is an artifact of
the mail user agent being used by these people, which I would wager
is Microsoft Outlook, since you have identified these people as
business persons.

-- Terry

To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?3CF16F86.A6E241B0>