Bret Hughes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Joe Brenner wrote:
>
> > Reply *below* the quotation (and trim the excess, there's no
> > need to quote everything). That way after several exchanges
> > it will read like a dialog.
> My issue is that if I am following a thread that may have several
> responses, why should I have to scroll down through the same output every
> time? Is this a netiquite custom that was set when the number of people
> involved was much lower hence a much smaller volume of
> mails?
Actually, I think it's a custom that evolved in exchanges on
a global network where the dialog has to be asynchronous.
You don't know if your response is going to be read
immediately or next week, so it's important to give your
remarks some context.
In the corporate environment (where all too many people have
learned their email habits) it's a little different. You're
talking to a small group of people with a regular, known
schedule, who can be presumed to be checking their email
continuously throughout the day. So your style doesn't
matter as much, and it might actually save time for people
to do things "backwards" and reply above the quote.
> I will place the replies at the bottom if that is the consensus of the
> community is but I disagree with it. I have been noticably irritated by
> having to repeatedly scroll down but as I value my membership in this
> community I will <gasp> conform to the norm.
Thanks much. I have to say that my experience is the
opposite. When I look at a message by one of the "reply
above and never trim" crowd, I don't know what the hell the
guy is talking about at first, and I've got to skip down to
see if anything's quoted, and then skip back up to the new
message. I get annoyed at having to scroll twice, when if
it was written properly I should just be able to skim
through the earlier dialog on my way to the current
response.
> BTW in an unrelated point, harddrive space is relatively cheap today and
> getting cheaper. Bandwith is increasing also but I do believe that we
> need to be aware of our usage. My time is going the other way as an owner
> of a startup with two people trying to do everything.
Disk space and network bandwidth are nothing compared to
mental bandwidth, that's the real issue. Sure, *you* can
save time by being lazy when you're posting, but if you make
it harder to follow your message, then your saving your time
at the expense of hundreds of other people...
> One last comment if redhat is going to put something at the end of every
> mail then why not a blurb about where to get to an easily searchable
> archive like www.moongroup.com/redhat.phtml?
Good question. They're embarrassed? They want you to pay
for support? Institutional inertia, most likely.
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