[Foundation-l] How to reply to a mailing list thread

[teun spaans]

On Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 12:41 AM, MZMcBride <z at mzmcbride.com> wrote:

> >>Hello --
>
> >>Some of the people posting to this mailing list don't seem to understand
> how
> to write a decent, readable reply to a mailing list thread.

 Yes, but the opinion on what makes a readable reply may differ from person
to person.

>>This makes for far more noise than signal,

True


> >>as people wade through six copies of the
> foundation-l footer

 Footers should of course be kept brief and to the point, else they become
irritating.. Our current footer can probably be reduced to 1 or 2 lines.

>>or eight old and irrelevant replies trying to find the
> content of the reply to the previous message.
>
> Good practice imho is to leave only the previous text, but delete all text
before the previous message.
This is easiest when people use top-line posting. But I must confess that I
have not always done that in the past.


> >>The Toolserver wiki has a fantastic page that explains how to reply to a
>
>>mailing list thread the Right Way.[1] If you suspect you've been Doing It
>
>>Wrong, please have a read.
>
See my reply further down.

>
> >>Thanks!
>
> >>MZMcBride
>
> >>[1] https://wiki.toolserver.org/view/Mailing_list_etiquette
> Thank you for providing the link. I think this policy must be discussed, as
> many people will prefer top-line posting, as shown by its popularity on this
> mailing list.. Inline posting, as demonstrated by this reply, may well
> obscure the orginal message.
>