[Tfug] top/bottom and middle posting

[Robert Hunter]

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Perhaps we ought to review the practice of quoted messages altogether,
particularly when it is the source of so much controversy.  It seems
to me that a properly threaded discussion will provide enough context
for the purpose of dialog.

Obviously, for a "quote-less" dialog to work, we need to assume a
few things:

First of all, a message needs to contain certain standard header
information (e.g., Message-ID, and In-Reply-To).  If your MUA doesn't
provide these headers, then it is broken.


Second, a Mail User Agent needs to be capable of threading based on
these headers -- something which unfortunately does not seem to be
standardized.  For example, Mutt is particularly good at threading,
whereas Gmail blows titanic chunks.


Finally, beyond all the technical requirements, a quote-less dialog
requires a modest writing effort from the user.  Namely, one
needs to employ the appropriate connective phrasing for context,
rather than rely on the automatic quoting mechanism.  For example:

"In response to your assertion that top-posting is vile, and
uncivilized, yada yada yada."


I personally prefer this style of writing, but over time I have given
in to the convention of using quoted text in my replies.  As an
experiment, I will attempt to avoid automated quoting in my email.  I
just noticed that Mutt has an option to disable it (the "include"
config option).   To those of you who use mail programs with poor or
dysfunctional threading capabilities, I apologize in advance.



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RH
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