Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 22:49:36 -0600 From: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> To: "Scott Gerhardt" <scott@gerhardt-it.com> Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Email Etiquette on this list Message-ID: <15364.27872.189915.109985@guru.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <63187021@toto.iv>
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Scott Gerhardt <scott@gerhardt-it.com> types: > Is there a preferred message protocol for responding to this list? Yes. It's already been posted, but I'll post it again: http://www.lemis.com/questions.html > - Replies are posted at the _TOP_ of the message; saves scrolling when > following a long thread and keeps everything is reverse chronological order. Your reason for top posting is wrong because of this: > - Trim off anything that does not pertain to the current message. That's far more important than where you post the reply. Resending the entire message you are replying to is a major sin. Whether you have to scroll through it or not is immaterial - it's a waste of bandwidth. Should I decide I want to read the entire text for some reason, it's in the archives. Once you trim the message you are replying to properly, then people shouldn't need to scroll no matter where the reply is. Take this message as an example - I didn't top post. Did you have to any problem at all finding the new text? The problem with top posting in a discussion is that it makes reading the previous discussion a matter of "go to the end, then scroll up to the top of the first message and read to the end. Now scroll to the top of the previous message and read to the end of that. Repeat until you throw the computer out the window in frustration." In trying to debug a problem - rather than just a Q&A - this becomes critical, because you really do want to know what was done, and in what order, and what the results were. Properly editing the message when replying is critical in this situation. <mike -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Q: How do you make the gods laugh? A: Tell them your plans. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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