On Sun, 1 Jul 2001, Brian Z Jones wrote:
>
> Ian Hickson wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 1 Jul 2001, Brian Z Jones wrote:
>>
>>> I disagree. I figure, you know what you sent me, you want to see what
>>> I'm saying in reply first.
>>>
>>
>> This fails on three counts.
>>
>> 1. I have no idea what I sent you. I send dozens and dozens of e-mails
>> each day. There is no way I can remember what I sent you.
>>
>> 2. I receive hundreds of e-mails each day. If I can't work out what you're
>> talking about within a few seconds, then I lose interest and move on.
>
> Well, both of these "fail" as rebuttals.
> 1) That is what the SUBJECT line is for, to refresh you seemingly
> limited memory with regard to our conversation.
(Yes, I have a very bad memory. I shouldn't need a good one, the
technology is there to support my disability.)
The subject line helps, but not much. consider threads such as this one:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-talk/2001MayJun/0000.html
Several hundred posts, almost as many arguments, most of which are
happening in parallel. The subject line doesn't help.
> 2) If you don't find our conversation interesting, then you should
> rightly delete it anyway, regardless of format.
I do. This doesn't help me when the conversation _is_ interesting, though.
>> 3. On mailing lists, I usually didn't write the original message, and so
>> there is no way I can remember "what I wrote".
>
> As for this, I agree. I was referring more to e-mail than to news. I
> don't read newsgroups too often, but, as I've been doing a lot recently,
> I have found that this is true [hence the format of my current reply].
For e-mails where there are only two participants, then for me top posting
is not as critical a problem. It is still a pain, though.
And if you agree that in mailing lists, newsgroups, and messages with
multiple CCs, top posting is bad, then why would it suddenly be good for 1
to 1 posting? The same arguments hold.
>>> [...] as your reply may get lost as I scroll on down, so I guess I
>>> just like things my own way.
>>
>> If you are using a mail client which highlights text based on the ">"
>> nesting level, you won't miss a thing.
>
> PINE doesn't do this,
Yes it does. I'm using it right now and I get different colours for
different indent levels. I can provide a screenshot on request if you
don't believe me.
--
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