Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 19:39:50 +0200 From: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@online.fr> To: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> Cc: rob <rob@pythonemproject.com>, "chat@freebsd.org" <chat@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Bottom-quoting (was Re: My friends were amazed at FreeBSD...) Message-ID: <20020526173949.GA230@lpt.ens.fr> In-Reply-To: <15601.2665.379231.456776@guru.mired.org> 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>
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Mike Meyer said on May 26, 2002 at 11:16:41: > > Maybe you need another haircut :) or your mails do, they're too long > > on top. There is no earthly reason to quote an entire mail on top of > > each of your mails. If your mail client doesn't allow you to delete > > lines[1], maybe you could bottom quote instead. Some people don't > > like it, but it's better than forcing your readers to wade through > > lines and lines of irrelevant stuff which they've read already, before > > getting to your point... > > If your mail reader is that broken, don't quote. All the stuff that's > been read before is irrelevant whether it's on the top or the bottom. If you receive more that around 20 emails a day, *some* form of quoting is essential, otherwise keeping track will be impossible. My remark, about the mail client not letting you delete lines, was not meant to be serious -- I certainly hope such a thing doesn't exist. Selective and appropriate quoting is the best of all, but bottom quoting is not so bad; I've seen JKH and Linus Torvalds do it, among other celebrities, and it's pretty standard in the "real world". One could even argue that it's in line with standard practice in snail-mail: if you're including a copy of the original letter in your reply, you'll place it below your reply while stapling them together, not above. So I think bottom-quoting is not the best thing, but it's not too bad; the main drawback is wasting bandwidth. Top-quoting an entire mail, on the other hand, serves only to annoy the reader. - Rahul To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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