On Fri, 26 May 2000, Bret Hughes 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.
> >
> > You'd think everyone here grew up using Microsoft mailers.
[snip]
> 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? I can still
> usually follow a thread that the order gets chopped up and if I get lost
> it is usually because the clipping of replies has cut so much context out
> that I end up going back to the original messages to find the context. I
> keep a considerable amount of archives in my mail account at the office
> and find that the moongroup archives are a valuable resource as well.
[snip]
I once received an email from Randal Schwartz (Perl guru and author of
Learning Perl) in regard to a message I had answered on a Linux newsgroup
(not a Perl newsgroup). It admonished me for putting my reply at the top
of the message rather than after the original reply. I'm quite sure it was
not a personal email from Randal (whom I've never met). It looked like a
very clever hack--I think he has created a perlbot that looks for
"offenders" and sends auto-admonishments.
I admire Randal for his excellent writing and his clever programming, but
I think he goes over the top in his quest for newsgroup "purity". I
chuckled because most of the time I *do* put the replies at the end, to
preserve the dialog. But in this case it was a quick answer to a quick
question of the type: where can I find xyz that does abc?
For this kind of messaging, which is not intended to be a dialog, I prefer
seeing replies at the top because I can scan quickly to see if it's of any
personal interest, then move on if it's not, without having to scroll.
But perhaps Randal is right. Consistency is probably better than
convenience.
Gene
-----------------------------------
Gene Wilburn -}{- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.NorthernJourney.com
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