Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Mon, 27 May 2002 01:27:43 -0700
From:      David Schultz <dschultz@uclink.Berkeley.EDU>
To:        Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com>
Cc:        Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@online.fr>, 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:  <20020527012743.A1951@HAL9000.wox.org>
In-Reply-To: <3CF1626D.DE01A84F@mindspring.com>; from tlambert2@mindspring.com on Sun, May 26, 2002 at 03:32:13PM -0700
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> <3CF1626D.DE01A84F@mindspring.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Thus spake Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com>:
> Quoting a message in its entirety, as a blob, whether before or after,
> is generally annoying, since if the thread is interesting, then the
> blob was already read, and your reply is addressing the entire
> statement, not the statement in context.  The entire statement, in
> context, is already in context as a blob, in the mail archives and/or
> the readers "inbox".

If you receive lots of email, much of it from clueless people who
sometimes don't even use the same damn subject line, a reply with the
entire message quoted is less annoying than a reply with nothing
quoted.[1]  The difference is pressing Page Down a few times versus
looking up the person's last message in your mailbox.  It's especially
annoying someone is replying to a message sent to a mailing list,
because it's harder to find the context.

If you don't receive lots of email, then you will probably remember
the exact words you said and don't need the context.  Then again, if
you receive lots of email, you have less of a right to complain.


[1] Fortunately, I am no longer paid to deal with such people, but I 
    remember what it was like.

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?20020527012743.A1951>