[ox-en] remarks on posting styles
- From: Stefan Meretz <stefan.meretz hbv.org>
- Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:10:25 +0200
Hi all,
for me the long thread about "money" was really hard to follow, just by
the form of your posts you chose. Most of you are using Top-Posting or
Bottom-Posting or some bad variants of Inline Replying.
A good reference is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style
_Top-Posting_ means writing the remarks first, then leave the rest
quoted (if quoted at all) below, no matter, how long it is.
_Bottom-Posting_ means the reversal: own remarks below a whole bunch of
quoted text (if quoted at all).
If find both extremly annoying. You always have scroll to check, whether
there is yet some snippet of text hidden into mountains of quoted text.
Really funny examples are posts which include some single remarks such
as "I agree" above or below some tons of quoted text.
Next: The reference is not clear. If you are writing a general remark to
some point, then it is nearly useless to write this above or below a
huge amount of quoted text. Why not writing "I have some general
remarks to this or that point..." - and then writing it into a blank
mail. Wouldn't it be a good idea to start a new thread by creating a
new mail, choosing a new topic title (the subject), and writing down
your ideas?
_Inline quoting_ could be a good alternative, however, it have to be
applied in a userfriendly way. It is as useless as Top- or Bottom
posting, when you are not cutting the text down to the piece you want
to comment on. It could be even worse when you add multiple newlines
(it may stem from converting), because it increases amount of scrolling
through useless characters.
Appeal: Please use userfriendly inline quoting. Cut the text you want to
comment on down to the statement you are interested in and you want to
comment on. Remove all superfluous quote characters, avoid superfluous
empty lines. But please use _one_ empty line between the quoted text
and you comment. And you are helping the next replyer, if you create
your mail by choosing short paragraphs separated with newlines (like in
this mail, which is not always easy)
Last on Subject: When writing a reply, then you have three possibilities
to use the subject:
1. open up a new mail with a new subject describing the new topic
2. leave the subject as it is, because the answer is about that subject
3. shifting the subject to another subject, because it has changed
While 1. and 2. are self-evidant, the latter needs cooperation. It goes
like this:
1. person: Old subject
2. person: Re: Old subject
3. person: New subject (was: Re: Old subject)
4. person: New subject
5. person: Re: New subject
If you see this, then the cooperation has failed:
Re: New subject (was: Re: Old subject)
It not so complicated, it simply needs some attention when replying. If
it works, we will all benefit from it.
Ciao,
Stefan
(I should save this mail for next year...)
--
Start here: www.meretz.de
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