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 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org