Mail etiquette

[Greg 'groggy' Lehey]

On Saturday, 20 January 2007 at 20:55:54 -0800, Michael wrote:
> Greg Albrecht wrote:
>>
>> ps: there's no need to reiterate how 'hard' it is for you to have to
>> 'scroll down' to read the original message in a reply, how is that any
>> different than me having to scroll down to read your reply?

I hadn't intended to respond to this, but since I'm replying anyway,
the answer is "none", of course.  If you put all your reply at the
bottom, you miss important things, like the text you both quoted:

>> On 18/01/07, Greg 'groggy' Lehey <grog at freebsd.org> wrote:
>>> "Top posting" is only one issue.  Others of great importance are
>>> trimming your posts, not breaking the lines into tiny fragments, and
>>> not writing one-line paragraphs.

(end of quotation).

In summary: if you don't trim your messages, you'll have more
difficulty getting your point across, and also more difficulty
understanding what you're replying to.  If you trim your messages to
what's necessary, people will need to read the entire message anyway.

> I couldn't agree more Greg A.
>
> I think it is time for most mta's step up and standardize a bit, but I
> also think people complain a little to much about top/bottom posting
> issue.

In general, I don't complain.  I just delete messages unseen if they
annoy me.  The annoyance depends on whether the message is even
marginally intelligible; frequently it's not.

> Personally if the email app I'm using decides to place my cursor at
> the bottom/top, then that's where I start typing.

"The computer made me do it!".

Surely *you* should want to be in charge.

> The order in which a conversation takes place, rarely has little to
> do with the content of the thread.

Agreed.  It is closely related.  But I think you tripped over your own
keyboard on that statement.

Remember the text at http://www.lemis.com/email.html , which I think
was quoted here:

  Your mail message is all that many people see of you, and if it's
  poorly formatted, one line per paragraph, badly spelt, or full of
  errors, it will give people a poor impression of you.

  In the impersonal world of the Internet, your mail messages are the
  most tangible thing about you. Send out a well thought out, clear
  and legible message, and you will leave a good impression. Send out
  a badly formulated, badly formatted and badly spelt message, and you
  will leave a bad impression.

Greg
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