[Mailman-Users] The "right" way to reply to a mailing list

[David Andrews]

At 07:45 PM 3/19/2015, Mark Sapiro wrote:
>On 03/19/2015 02:53 PM, Barry Warsaw wrote:
> >
> > As the article mentions, there are enough different styles in 
> widespread use
> > that it's best to conform to the norms of the community.  My own feeling is
> > that interleaved-with-trimming is the most conducive to mailing list
> > discussions.
>
>
>+1
>
>Although, I have fought and lost the battles with my cycling club list
>members.
>
>On our main discussion list, digests are virtually unreadable at times
>because it is nearly impossible to find the original material in the
>multiple quotes of quotes of quotes, and similarly for archives.
>
>And some people on the list continue to insist that they like top
>posting with full quoting because they only have to read the latest post
>in a thread (albeit from the bottom up), even though it's been pointed
>out to them multiple times that threads are trees and even if everyone
>quotes everything, any particular leaf only contains the posts on that
>branch.
>
>Top posting with full quoting is also encouraged by MUAs like Gmail's
>web client that hide the quoted material unless you ask for it.
>
>I do understand that in some business situations (contract negotiations,
>attorney/client communication and the like), it is useful and pretty
>much demanded that each message contain the full transcript of what went
>before, but this has no place on an email discussion list.
>
>This is a major hot-button issue for me, The above is only scratching
>the surface.


Everyone should remember that your needs are not necessarily the same 
as others.  I run some 250 lists that primarily cater to blind 
persons, and top posting is the norm.  While we can sort it all out, 
despite quoting style, top posting is the easiest in most 
situations.  There is no one right, or wrong way.




         David Andrews and long white cane Harry.
E-Mail:  dandrews at visi.com or david.andrews at nfbnet.org