On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 05:45:58PM -0700, Mark Sapiro wrote: > I do understand that in some business situations (contract negotiations, > attorney/client communication and the like), it is useful and pretty > much demanded that each message contain the full transcript of what went > before,
I don't think it is useful. It might be demanded, but that's just because it's the convention, not because it's useful. If it were useful to include a full transcript of everything that went on prior in each and every message, lawyers would do so with paper correspondence (and charge the client for photocopying). But they don't. I've been through a number of (thankfully minor) legal actions, and going through conventional top-posted emails is *painful*. It makes searching for keywords ineffective in all the email clients I've used. Nobody ever bothers to read or go through the quoted transcripts, why would you read the quoted-to-the-nth-degree text when you can read the original? The worst example I found was quoted twenty-one levels deep. A three line response plus sig (naturally including one of those nonsense legal disclaimers about not reading the email if you aren't the intended recipient) followed by about thirty pages of quoted text starting with > then >> then >>> and so on to >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>. And it was my job to go through it, and the rest of the emails in the thread, in both directions, looking for anything relevent to the legal action. Even though I wasn't actively reading the quoted sections, the sheer volume of cruft to wade through is brain-melting. Counting the entire conversation, the original post was duplicated something like fifty or sixty times. Fun times. > but this has no place on an email discussion list. Agreed! But too many people replying with their smart phones and iProducts can't do anything else... > This is a major hot-button issue for me, The above is only scratching > the surface. I feel your pain :-) -- Steve ------------------------------------------------------ Mailman-Users mailing list Mailman-Users@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users Mailman FAQ: http://wiki.list.org/x/AgA3 Security Policy: http://wiki.list.org/x/QIA9 Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/mailman-users%40python.org/ Unsubscribe: https://mail.python.org/mailman/options/mailman-users/archive%40jab.org