On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 8:06 PM, Scott <scottro@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Ok, to be serious for a minute, judging from a few posts, not everyone > understands, so just to clarify for newcomers, or for anyone who doesn't > have English as their first language. (Though many of the latter write > better than we native speakers, but that's another thread.) :) > > You old timers who know all this can skip the rest, it's a rehash of > some common netiquette. > > > > Top posting is posting your response above the post you are answering. > > For example: > > I write: > I think Arch is great. > > Someone responds by posting above it, so it looks like: > > Yeah, you're right. > > >I think Arch is great > > (that's assuming the responder's email handles quoting.) > > One thing that can confuse people is that this is often the norm in > business correspondence. It might even be preferable, if for example, > the boss responds above a long detailed proposal, Yes, do it. > > Whether or not that's really the best way, it is pretty accepted in > business. You can't even blame MS mailers, since most mailers do start > at the top of an email by default, including mutt. This also makes > sense. You can read and respond. > > On technical mailing lists, the preferred method is almost always what's > called in line posting. I write. > > I think Arch is great. > > I like the fact that they have a small base install > > You respond > > >I think Arch is great. > > Yes, I do too. > > >I like the fact that they have a small base install. > > I feel the same way, though sometimes, I miss having X installed and > configured upon installation. > > > In other words, you reply to point A below point A and point B below > point B, so it imitates a spoken conversation. > > Two other points often overlooked by newcomers are trimming and thread > hijacking. Trimming means to snip unneeded parts of an email. For > example, if I write 10 lines explaining my work situation, but only the > last two lines actually have my question, you snip the first 8 lines. > This way, other people following the thread don't have to scroll through > the entire story to see the question. > > Thread hijacking is when you take a thread, for example, this one, then > just change the subject line to start a new thread. MS email clients > will make it look like a new thread, but many other clients pay > attention to the actual headers, and will include your new thread as > part of the old one. As many people won't even notice that, it's > another common mistake. > > So, just thought I'd clarify these three for folks who aren't aware of > them, and folks who might not have realized that many of us were being > silly, deliberately top posting while complaining about it. > > Hopefully this is of use to some and those who already know it heeded > the warning at the beginning and didn't read it. :) Woah. /me blinks This should be wikified 8)
