[lug] Re: E-mail etiquette

[Nate Duehr]

David Morris wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 1:49 PM, George Sexton <gsexton at mhsoftware.com> wrote:
>>
>> David L. Anselmi wrote:
>>> David Morris wrote:
>>>> Reminds me of an old argument on why bottom-posting should be used:
>> Have you ever seen a top poster whine about bottom posting?
> 
> Many times in corporate environments where outlook is the norm.
> Sometimes they won't even read a bottom-post email if you don't
> include a statement at the top like "Important comments in-line in
> blue", and color comments appropriately to stand out.  Most common
> among managers in my experience.

I know of at least one large corporation (swedish, engineering) that 
you'll be marked down on reviews in your communication skills if you do 
in-line comments.

They feel it's "extremely unprofessional".  They'd prefer a 
well-thought-out single paragraph or multiples paragraphs, but your 
thoughts should not be "broken up" by the other person's, and no one 
should EVER mix three or four people's comments.

It's just their way, I guess.

I was shocked and laughed at loud at my friend who communicated to me 
that this was the reason he didn't like seeing e-mails with in-line 
comments about blocks of text (he works for the unsaid company), during 
a phone conversation when he shared that it was one of the reasons he 
wasn't reading all the details from a team of people working on 
something outside of work.

He was fully indoctrinated in this company's culture, and he didn't 
think it was funny that I was laughing at him, at all.  :-)

Different strokes for different folks, is the moral of the story, I guess.

I've been a whack-job for bottom-posting in years past, but as my mail 
software has gotten "dumber" and can't even do proper partial quoting 
and bottom-posts anymore, I've noticed I also just don't care.

The only thing I really dislike is "quotes" that have no markings, no 
colors, nothing to differentiate the quote and the new text.

Bottom, top, black, blue, orange, purple, in-line, paragraphs or 
memo/document style... all I want to do is figure out what you said, and 
then if needed I'll reply.  :-)

(And recently I noted that my iPhone won't do anything but top-posting. 
That was the last straw in my "I just don't care anymore" response to 
all of the possibilities for answering an e-mail.)

Nate