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Thread: List etiquette

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Number of posts in this thread: 5 (In chronological order)

From: Joe Clark
Date: Wed, May 26 2004 10:22AM
Subject: List etiquette
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Is anybody going to have the spine to intervene on this list and tell
people

a. not to use away messages
b. never, ever to use HTML

and, for good measure,

c. not to top-post?

This list's digests are not standards-compliant in any way (believe it or
not, there are standards for mailing lists) and are simply being destroyed
by "professionals" whose mail skills are more reminiscent of
teenyboppers'.

--

Joe Clark | = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Accessibility
Expect criticism if you top-post

From: julian.rickards@ndm.gov.on.ca
Date: Wed, May 26 2004 10:45AM
Subject: Re: List etiquette
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: joeclark
>
> c. not to top-post?

What is "top-post"?

---------------------------------------------------------
Julian Rickards
Digital Publications Distribution Coordinator
Publications Services Section
Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines
Phone: (705) 670-5608
Fax: (705) 670-5690

From: Larry G. Hull
Date: Wed, May 26 2004 10:57AM
Subject: Re: List etiquette
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At 12:37 PM -0400 5/26/04, julian.rickards wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
>> From: joeclark
>>
>> c. not to top-post?
>
>What is "top-post"?

Top-posting: Writing the message above the original text, when one
replies to an email or a post in a newsgroup.

From: Karl Groves
Date: Wed, May 26 2004 11:12AM
Subject: Re: List etiquette
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>
> Is anybody going to have the spine to intervene on this list and tell
> people
>
> a. not to use away messages

I've actually mentioned this twice recently. For some reason my posts
aren't in the archives though.

Karl L. Groves
Director of Web Development
User-Centered Design, Inc.
Office: 703-729-0998
Secondary: 410-863-0328
Mobile: 571-214-1714
E-mail: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Web: http://www.user-centereddesign.com

AIM, MSN, ICQ, Yahoo screen name: "karlcore"

From: Jared Smith
Date: Wed, May 26 2004 11:20AM
Subject: Re: List etiquette
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On Wednesday, May 26, 2004 Joe Clark sent:

> a. not to use away messages

This is always a problems with lists. Properly set up e-mail clients
should not send autoresponders to lists. If you are using an away
message, please ensure it does not send to the list.

We are implementing means to filter out away messages before they are
sent out, but this involves detecting certain strings within the
Subject line. Ultimately, such messages will make there way on to the
list unless you set your e-mail clients to stop sending them.

> b. never, ever to use HTML

Again, many people will be using e-mail clients that insist on sending
HTML. This will remain an option on the list. When possible, do not
send HTML messages to the list. We will make an attempt to convert
HTML messages to plain text for the digest version. Please be patient
with others who may not be familiar with proper list etiquette.

> c. not to top-post?

Top-posting refers to posting your reply to a message so that the
entire message you are replying to appears below your response. Most
e-mail clients are set up to top-post by default. Top-posting makes
understanding the context of a response difficult and leads to very
cluttered digests. A more informative method involves only quoting
relevant and important portions of the original message (such as I
have done in this message). Again, this list is intended for ALL
people interested in Web accessibility - many of whom may not yet
understand such rather trivial issues.

A very good tutorial on proper list quoting can be found at
http://mailformat.dan.info/quoting/

> This list's digests are not standards-compliant in any way

We are working on polishing the digest. What we have in place now is a
functional, yet temporary solution. At this point we're more
interested in digest subscribers getting list content than ensuring
that such messages are structured correctly.

In regards to the archives, because we have implemented a new list
application, the archives are not currently being updated. We will be
manually updating these archives in the near future to include missing
posts from the last few weeks.

If any of you have any comments or suggestions regarding the list,
please respond to me off-list.

Jared Smith
WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind)
Center for Persons with Disabilities
Utah State University