Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (1701 mails)

["David C. Rankin" <drankinatty@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sunday 27 September 2009 09:07:11 am Linda Walsh wrote:
>         Those who choose to live in the stone age are the ones I'm talking
>  about who are preventing progress.  They need bottom posting because
>  everything scrolls to the bottom when they bring up a message, by
>  default.  You have to explicitly invoke a pager to read it the top
>  part.  For me it's just the opposite.  I have to page to read the bottom
>  part.

Just my .02,

        I've used gui mailers since David Harris released his first gui of 
pegasus 
mail (~ 1990) but I'm equally happy if I need to use pine on a remote host, 
etc. A mail server just holds the ASCII, how you get to it and how you view it 
is up to you. There is a good argument to be made for continuing listserve 
mail in a text-only format. (I have seen the horrors allowing html on mailing 
lists bring) In addition to the Linux lists, I also have a few legal lists I 
am a member of. One is the TTLA (texas trial lawyers assn.) list that is 
server by the "lyris" list service. Volume runs ~500 posts per day. 3-4 years 
ago the ttla list started to allow html on the list and message size increased 
4-fold to ~20k per post compared to the 4-6k in text -- and -- the MS word 
document attachments add 100 - 200K.

        Does it make a difference? Yes it does. Where you have broadband, then 
it 
isn't an issue from a download time standpoint, but where you are limited to 
dial-up -- It makes a HUGE difference. While allowing a "little" html may not 
seem all that bad at first, once the camel gets his nose under the tent ....

        Notwithstanding the size/download time issue, the next issue that 
emerges is 
how do you police it and who polices it? Yes any computer can parse messages, 
count tags, and reject based on some arbitrary limit, and rules can be set on 
what html can be added, etc.., but regardless it still becomes an additional 
layer of crap for someone to deal with. Given the number of issues involved in 
allowing a "little" html, I just don't see the benefit in it.

        On the bottom posting issue, I used to think it was just a pain. It was 
easier for me to just hit reply. But over the years I have learned to value 
reading information in a thread in the context it was meant to be read rather 
than having to scroll down and then back up to get the exact context. Over the 
years the mailer developers have added the capability to just about every mail 
package I can think of the "place the replay After the original message" which 
eliminates any "extra work" argument. For messages that can be completely read 
without the need to scroll to see the rest -- who cares. I've never been one 
of the reply: "Please Don't Top Post" guys, it just doesn't matter that much 
to me, but I can say that it's a whole lot easier to read a long message when 
the reply is either interlineated following each paragraph or bottom posted at 
the end of the message.

        Regardless of which side you come down on, I think reality probably 
dictates 
that there is just too much historical inertia standing in the way of changing 
either the text-only format or bottom-posting recommendation...

-- 
David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
Rankin Law Firm, PLLC
510 Ochiltree Street
Nacogdoches, Texas 75961
Telephone: (936) 715-9333
Facsimile: (936) 715-9339
www.rankinlawfirm.com
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