[pchelpers] Fwd: Re: why top posting wastes more time than interleaved posting
- From: "Ekhart GEORGI (last name last)" <ekhart.georgi@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: pchelpers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2010 12:55:43 +0200
forwarding old message by Susan below to explain reader-friendly quoting
(in other words adding empty line *after* quote of only that part of the
original that is necessary to make answer comprehensible)
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [pchelpers] Re: why top posting wastes more time than
interleaved posting
Date: Sun, 14 Feb 2010 10:33:24 -0800
From: Susan <starquest@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: pchelpers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: pchelpers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Ek,
> You're right that it's annoying to have to scroll through many lines of
> an old message that are not necessary for understanding a reply written
> below, but even more annoying is the situation now common on this list
> and elsewhere, in which the answer is above the original and 1)
> incomprehensible because one doesn't know what is being replied to 2)
> one has to scroll down 3) has to hunt for what is being responded to 3)
> has to scroll back up and 4) has to reread the answers. That means one
> has to scroll through the old message twice instead of once and has to
> read the answer twice (and people still don't learn to remove the
> unnecessary parts of the original that waste time and annoy).
>
I agree with these points. That's one of the main reasons why I hate
scrolling through old quotes to get to the main point. On other lists,
the reminder is to removed old, unnecessary parts of the email before
sending. Most people try to do that, for one day perhaps, only to go
back to their bad habits the next. To me, trimming the quotes in emails
should be part of basic computer education. I've seen huge lines of
old, unnecessary quotes on many of the lists I'm on, and because of
that, I'm glad the new post it at the top so I don't have to scroll down
to find the response. Personally though, my preference is top posting,
unless the need dictates otherwise, but old quotes do have to be
adequately trimmed, no matter where one puts their response, as you
indicated.
> It is also important to have at least one empty line between
> the quoted part(s) of the old message and your answer. Otherwise most
> people find such interleaved answers very confusing and annoying. Many
> can't even find your answers.
>
I totally agree. Leaving two spaces between paragraphs were basic
things taught in typing class so it shouldn't be any stretch of the
imagination to apply that concept to quotes and reponses. Not having
been in school for many years now, I'm not even sure if proper
keyboarding skills are taught nowadays.
-Sue
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