[Tfug] top/bottom and middle posting

[Robert Hunter]

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Don, you make many valid points.  I suppose I may have gone a bit too
far by giving the impression that I think block-quoting is obsolete.
In fact, what I was trying to say is that the current default behavior
of mail programs to quote the entire message was neither satisfactory,
nor necessary.  The top vs. bottom posting argument is obviated when
you remove this default quoting behavior from you mail program.


When I say that I prefer "prose" style versus "bullet" style writing,
I do not mean that one should not use selective quoting, because it
(selective quoting) is, without argument, very useful.  I am, however,
of the opinion that too often you see posts that consist almost
entirely of one or two-line exchanges that make for rather poor
reading.


In regard to quoting, there must be a better way than the usual "hit
reply, and then trim" routine. For example, Gmail labs has a "quote
selected text in your reply" feature, which is a step in the right
direction, but not nearly enough, because there is no way to create
multiple selections within a single message, nor ones which span
multiple posts.


Finally, I like the idea of mail messages containing cross-references
rather than quoted text.  Unfortunately, I do not see an obvious way
to do this.  Whereas referencing a post is easily done by Message-ID,
I am not sure how you would reference a specific portion of it,
particularly when you are lacking some sort of mark-and-select
control.  Nevertheless, if someone can figure this out, I think
cross-referencing would a be superior method for many reasons.


PS. I'd like to hear about the stone-age postage sometime! ;-)


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RH



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