E-mail etiquette (was: Re: [lug] phantom irc traffic)

[David Morris]

On Sat, Nov 22, 2008 at 8:06 AM, David L. Anselmi <anselmi at anselmi.us> wrote:
> Hugh Brown wrote:
>>
>> My apologies.  I thought about trimming right as I clicked send.  It also
>> seems that top/bottom posting really is a vi vs. emacs sort of thing, along
>> with reply to list vs. reply to sender.
>
> No, it's not vi vs. emacs.  Your editor is a personal, private choice. Your
> email is for other people.  So there is email etiquette but not editor
> etiquette.
>
> Regardless what people might like to write, does anyone on the list prefer
> reading top-posted messages?  Not as in "it doesn't matter, depends, for
> some replies it's OK," but as in "oh no, another bottom-post--I have to get
> off this list!"
>
> It seems to me that the culture on this list, and others like it, is not to
> top-post.  We have found replying below quoted text to be a useful practice.
>
> You've seen web forums that present a thread on one page.  Do they put the
> most recent post at the top?  No.

Reminds me of an old argument on why bottom-posting should be used:
========================================================================
A: Because we read from top to bottom, left to right.
Q: Why should I start my reply below the quoted text?

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?

A: The lost context.
Q: What makes top-posted replies harder to read than bottom-posted?

A: Yes.
Q: Should I trim down the quoted part of an email to which I'm replying?
========================================================================

> When writing other people, whose email experience doesn't include mailing
> lists, top-posting might be more appropriate.  But even then, if I have
> multiple thoughts in reply to different parts of their message I'll reply
> below their quotes.

/begin rant...

Personally, I prefer bottom-posting and would refuse to top-post in any
situation because I frequently find it impossible to follow a thread
which uses top-posting.  However, I was recently forced to admit that
top-posting is sometimes the better choice, particularly in the corporate
world.

The argument came at me somewhat like this:

By default, MS Outlook (historically, and probably currently, the most
commonly used email client) forces top-posting by default.  This has
educated huge numbers of people in the corporate world that top-posting
is not just OK, but preferable to bottom-posting (or in-line posting, as
some call what I am using here).  Many of these people who have only ever
top-posted in email have a difficult time following bottom- or in-line-
posting email threads.

Far better in these environments to follow the local convention and
top-post because getting along with management (who almost always
prefer top-posting) is *far* more important than any ideologically
perfect style.

Doesn't  matter what reason you dislike top-posting.  It doesn't
even matter that top-posting has been demonstrated to lead to frequent
misunderstandings and occasionally expensive mistakes (I have several
such in my email archives).  Just fit in, and everyone all around will
be happier in the long-run.  The same goes for email lists where
bottom-posting or inline-posting is the norm, if you prefer top-posting.

So as much as it galls me to top-post, I now use the "when in Rome..."
style:  Follow whatever format is used "locally" to where the email
is being sent.  The only time I will bottom-post in a top-posting
corporate environment is when it is completely impossible to be clear
in a top-post, even with extra context typed in with my reply.  It
still annoys me, but its been worthwhile.

/end rant...

--David