On Jul 23, 2015, at 10:41 AM, Steven D'Aprano <st...@pearwood.info> wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 23, 2015 at 09:59:22AM -0400, Jon Paris wrote: > >> I am not familiar with the term “top post” - I’m guessing you mean >> that my reply came before your original message. > > Yes, it means "post at the top". Hence, "top post". > > A: Because it messes up the order in which you read. > Q: Why is that? > A: Top posting. > Q: What is the most annoying email practice? > > > In these sorts of technical forums, email is a discussion between > multiple parties, not just two, often in slow motion (sometimes replies > may not come in for a week, or a month). Often, a single email will > reply to anything up to a dozen or twenty individual points. Top posting > works reasonably well for short replies answering one, maybe two brief > points where the context is obvious. In technical discussions like we > have here, that is rarely the case. > > People may be reading these emails on the archives years from now, in > any order. Establishing context before answering the question makes > sense. Without context, our answers may not make sense. Hence we > quote the part we are replying to before we answer it: > > Q: What is the most annoying email practice? > A: Top posting. > Q: Why is that? > A: Because it messes up the order in which you read. > > >> My email does it that way because that is my preference - and for that >> matter most people I do business with. I will however try to remember >> that at least some people on this list don’t like it. Of course the >> minute I change it somebody else will probably complain about that! > > What you do in your business emails is up to you, but in my experience > (and YMMV) is that business emails are a wasteland of lazy and > incompetent replies from people who barely bother to read your email > before banging out the shortest top-posted response they can. Not that > I'm bitter :-) If I had a dollar for every time I've asked a customer or > supplier three questions, and they've answered the middle question and > not the two others, I'd be a wealthy man. But maybe I've just been > unlucky :-) > > But I digress. You may find this helpful: > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style > > > > -- > Steve > _______________________________________________ > Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org > To unsubscribe or change subscription options: > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor See my response to Alan. Jon Paris jon.f.pa...@gmail.com _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
