> Obviously, the correct place to reply is at the TOP of the message,
> with the original down below. That way, you don't have to wade thru
> all of what has gone before to get to the 'new' stuff.
>
> The only 'problem' is that if you want to re-read the entire thread,
> you have to start at the bottom and work your way up.
OK, time to weigh in on this. As we can see, I reply inline. There's a
holy host of reasons for this, but one of the main ones is the exact reason
you mention for replying at the top: because you have to wade through the
rest to get to my part. That's a GOOD thing:
- Context. Getting a two-sentence question at the top of a huge original
message can be at best confusing, especially if there's a pronoun problem
-- consider the well-meaning person who puts "I agree with what you say
there but what can we do about it?" at the top of a long essay that makes
several points? Inline, under the actual bit you're replying to.
- Brevity. Since you have to wander through the original to do inlining
anyway, it make you more likely to snip out comments from four generations
earlier to make your meaning clearer, and therefore focuses the original
includes on just the points you're addressing.
- Politeness. There are a thousand reasons why clear, short, focussed
emails are more considerate of the recipient, but I'll just ping a couple
and leave more as an exercise for the reader: Some people, myself
included, read this list in digest form. Having four- and five- layer deep
includes with few lines of actual new content makes it VERY hard to figure
out where one mail starts and another ends. Some people read this
list on a Newt. If your mail is more than a few screens long, including
all your signature/original-msg/attribution lines, you're probably saying
too much.
I could go on, but I'm already running a little long.
> Besides, reply-at-the-top =has= to be the correct way; that's the way
> Microsoft Outlook does it. (:
I know you have a smilie there, but running Outlook with the default
settings is begging for your box to be compromised. (Actually, running
Outlook AT ALL is less than completely safe.) Change the setting so that
Outlook replies below (yes, there is one), and then start trimming and
inlining.
Kirk, out.
-- R Pickett The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, Hayseed Networks legions, and all else, now meddles no more and longs emerson_at_hayseed.net eagerly for just two things -- bread and circuses.-- This is the Newtontalk mailinglist - http://www.newtontalk.net To unsubscribe or manage: visit the above link or mailto:newtontalk-request_at_newtontalk.net?Subject=unsubscribe
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Thu Nov 01 2001 - 10:02:37 EST