At 07:44 AM 8/22/97 -0400, Dick Campagna wrote:
>Suggestion: If everyone puts their message at the TOP of the preceding
>messages, it'll make it much easier/quick to read all the new messages
>every day. Comprende?
The accepted standard for replying to posts in newsgroups or
mailing lists is to put the response at the bottom. That way, one
can read the post from top to bottom, with all the latest stuff on
the bottom, just like we're used to seeing in books, newspapers, etc.
Since putting the reply on the bottom is the accepted standard, you
won't be able to get everybody to reply at the top, so you'll have some
people replying at the top and some replying on the bottom. This makes
it almost impossible to follow the chronilogical order of the thread.
Also, putting the replies at the bottom allows you to insert some of your
reply into the text of the original message like:
-----
Original poster wrote:
> blablabla
>
Reply to this point
> bla bla
Your reply to this part
Maybe a summary at the end of the message...
etc.
-------
You can't do that if you just post the entire response at the top of
the message.
There *is* a way to make the threads easier to read, and that's by
cutting out irrelevant parts of the message you're replying to. No need
to include the whole post if you're only replying to a section of it.
This makes new messages much easier to read and saves bandwidth at the
same time. (And takes away the urge to write a one sentence reply at
the top and just leave the (long) original message tacked on underneath.)
Now, I'm not going to go and impose some rule that says everyone has
to put their replies on the bottom of the message. Reply however you like;
but in my experience, putting the reply at the bottom of and trimming down
the original message has proven to be the superior method.
-Jon-
.--- steiger@ait.fredonia.edu -- http://www.cs.fredonia.edu/~stei0302/ ---.
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I do not speak for the SUNY College at Fredonia; any opinions are my own.
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