Re: Gmail and quotes

[David Kastrup]

SoundsFromSound <address@hidden> writes:

[fullquote deleted]

> I had no idea this was the norm. I've always been writing on top - including
> the previous messages below my reply for years now, which I now assume was a
> byproduct of working as an IT consultant as a secondary job. It feels so
> unnatural for me to scroll way down to the bottom of a previous
> message

You _don't_ scroll down to the bottom of a previous message.  You are
_not_ supposed to leave the previous message in place _except_ for those
parts that you _actively_ refer to.

If you need to scroll down before coming to relevant content, there was
too much quoted.  The previous message is _not_ to be quoted in full
(except in really trivial cases).  Not above, not below.

The previous message is _only_ to be used as _part_ of the new message
where it is _needed_ as part or context.

> a string of messages

Even worse.  I repeat: you _don't_ do a full quote.  Doing so will let
the signal-to-noise ratio drop to zero eventually.

> - and then write my response there;

It's a mistake already to consider the message you are replying to as a
blackbox.  If you are not going to do your reply point by point, are you
sure you even _need_ to quote it at all?

> but if that is correct etiquette outside of tech support, and for
> mailing lists, then I will try my hardest to not top post
> anymore. Sorry in advance.

The really important thing is _not_ _to_ _fullquote_.  We have people
doing a fullquote on daily digests of the mailing list.  If we get more
than one on average doing that, the size of the digest will grow
exponentially.

Everything is archived anyway.  Don't turn the mail messages into
archives of previous messages: that's not what they are for.

-- 
David Kastrup