[CS-FSLUG] A Favor to Ask

[Leon Brooks]

On Friday 28 January 2005 13:56, Andrew Minerd wrote:
> if you're replying to a long email, please "snip" and reply
> towards the top of your email, instead of after the countless
> paragraphs of the original.

My technique is, as here, to quote _just_ the relevant paragraph(s) and 
then reply to each piece as I go. This is a habit inherited from 
limited-bandwidth limited-screen-size FidoNet days and has the effect 
of keeping the message readable in isolation. It also operates like a 
conversation, bringing the topic back to the forebrain of the reader 
without boring them or burying them in detail.

Top-posting (TOFU) has the disadvantage of being in reverse-polish, and 
our brains don't work that way - and even diligent trimmers forget to 
trim stuff that they don't see. Worse, very few top-posters trim at 
all, which can quickly bog down an ordinary mail server, to say nothing 
of a mailing *list* server.

Bottom posting has no advantages over the other two methods, except that 
(if they're still awake) the reader has total context by the time they 
arrive at the response. I find bottom posting to be very tedious to 
wade through, and generally prefer top posting to it (which says a lot, 
'coz I loathe top-posting).

> Right now, the only Internet access I have is on my BlackBerry,
> so perhaps the problem is magnified, but I've noticed it even
> when on a desktop. 

I notice it even on my 19" 2560x2048 CRT. (-:

> In most cases, I'd rather read your reply and perhaps the
> portion of the discussion that it pertains to, not the 
> entire original - I've already received it once, anyways.

Agree. So:

  * Trim, but not so much that it becomes cryptic;

  * Attribute;

  * Drop enough original in for context; then

  * Comment.

Quoting it all sucks, quoting none of it sucks even more. It's dead easy 
to get right in KMail, reasonably easy with most MUAs and hard with 
MS-Outlook, so a secondary lesson is: don't use MS-Outlook if you can 
possibly avoid it.

Cheers; Leon

--
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets:
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
For verily I say unto you,
"Till heaven and earth pass,
one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law,
till all be fulfilled."
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments,
and shall teach men so,
he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven:
but whosoever shall do and teach them,
the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
    -- Matthew 5:17-19, KJV