"Scott Marlowe" <scott.marlowe@gmail.com> writes:
> But the other reason is that top posters are often the biggest
> offenders of not editing their replies. there's nothing like seeing a
> one line reply to a 500 line conversation.
> When inline posting, one can delete the parts of the converstation
> that they aren't replying to so that it is obvious what parts they are
> replying to and keep their post concise.
The real point here is that when writing to a mailing list, you should
make an effort to conserve other peoples' time. Hundreds of people are
going to read what you wrote, possibly thousands when you count in
people searching the list archives in the future. Saving them a few
seconds apiece adds up fast. Not bothering to expend a minute of your
own time to make it a bit easier on the reader marks you as a boor.
In the context of this particular issue, what that means is that it's
polite to quote only enough of the previous message to make it clear
what you're replying to --- you should assume that most readers already
saw the earlier message and don't need to read it all again, but maybe
could use a few sentences of context to remember what the thread was
about (especially since it might be hours or days since they read the
prior message). And you should quote the part of the message that bears
on what you've got to say, if there's an identifiable part that you're
responding to. And that quoting should come before your reply, because
otherwise your comment is out of context for the reader; again, they'd
have to burrow through the quoted message to remember what the
discussion was, and then come back and re-read your comment.
Another reason for being selective when you quote is to be polite to
people searching the list archives in the future --- they don't want to
be buried in hits from repeated quotes of the message they're actually
looking for.
I don't say that you *can't* top post and still be polite, but nearly
every example I've ever seen came off as rude to the reader because
it didn't take any of these things into account, and it very obviously
was something that the sender didn't spend any time on. If people
decide you're a jerk they're likely to ignore your posts.
regards, tom lane