On Tue, Apr 07, 2020 at 09:23:34PM -0500, Derek Martin wrote:
Sorry, but this is an archaic way of looking at the problem. People
have been doing this for decades now, has become the norm, common
practice, and really it is therefore WE who are being inconsiderate by
not accepting de facto standards that have been widely adopted for a
very long time.
Still, there is a limit as to practices which should be tolerated.
To me, the great advantage of email is that it allows both me and
those with whom I am corresponding to read and to reply at times which
are convenient for each of us, though those times may not be
coincident. Some are morning people; I am a nightowl.
One of the parties with whom I was corresponding by email is a
physician who receives urgent calls day and night on his cellular
phone. Years ago (before the smartphone became ubiquitous) his
well-meaning but not-so-bright daughter configured his mail client to
ring his cellular phone whenever a email arrives. Not long after, I
received an angry phone call from his wife, complaining that a
conversational email which I sent off at 2am or 3am awakened them.
The fact that someone is so stupid or so arrogant as not to secure a
telephone number and an email address reserved for vital matters
should not force me to look at the clock or consider time zones before
composing and sending messages by email. Nor should it be necessary
for me to accommodate the smartphone by limiting the length messages I
compose. Similar considerations appertain to the practice of
top-posting in a message thread.
It is wrong to allow caprice on the part of the stupid and the
ignorant to overthrow good traditions and good practices which have
developed over the years.
RLH
