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Re: reading list mail

for

From: John Foliot
Date: Aug 3, 2011 1:24PM

Answer: this is why!








Question: why is top posting bad?
(Homage to Joe Clark)

*********************
Jared Smith wrote:
>
>
> For accessibility and usability reasons, BOTH approaches are bad.

Can't have a double negative Jared: "bad" is binary, and requires "good"
(or at least "better") to be valid <grin>.


> The
> duplication of the entire previous message(s) is not necessary and
> makes the message much more difficult to consume and less accessible.

Hera, hear! Message trimming takes more work on the part of the responder,
but failing to do so - especially to lists - makes list archives bloated
and confusing. Do your part and be a good list citizen!

>
> We recommend that when responding to a message, that you remove the
> original message from your reply e-mail.

Completely? On a mailing-list, that negatively affects late-comers, as
they are now reading a message with no context. Saying that users can go
back and do the extra leg-work to get caught up isn't (IMHO) very user
friendly - and we should be looking after our users first, no?


> If there
> are particular portions of the message you want to reference
> specifically, trim the message to only the relevant portions, then
> include these brief quoted portions inline or at the top of your
> message.

...or, as I do here, respond inter-leaved after trimming the prior post. I
am a huge fan of inter-leaved responses (and thus do it all the time) as
it keeps on-line (written) discussions focused and relevant, especially if
there is more than 1 point that a response is seeking to make or address.

>
> Deleting the previous message or trimming to the relevant portions
> also helps keep the online list archives
> (http://webaim.org/discussion/archives) user friendly and accessible.

+1

JF