[illumos-Discuss] a suggestion on some email etiquette

[Michael]

 All,

This is probably no news to most of you - nevertheless, kindly indulge me :-)

As someone who receives too many emails anyway, I find it very hard
and time-consuming when I see emails of the form:

    response N
    > response N-1
    ...
    >...> initial message

while this looks like a non-issue here, imagine all this going on over
more than a screen-ful and lots of messages - it's almost impossible
to get context without scrolling down, then scrolling back up to read
the latest response (this is referred to as "top posting", btw).
The chance that I either postpone reading emails in such a thread, or
just delete them outright, is higher than otherwise.

OTOH, it's just as confusing (when reading in an email format) to see
a response but not what is being responded to - while you know exactly
what it is you're writing your answer to, whoever reads it will not
have the necessary context. Not all email clients support, nor do all
readers use threading

I'd therefore like to encourage people posting on this list to
a) only quote what's relevant to what's being said
b) follow the following form:

    > previous message excerpt 1
    response pertaining to excerpt 1

    > excerpt 2
    response pertaining to excerpt 2

etc. - as usual, apply your own judgement, no "rule" can fit all
situations perfectly :-)

TIA
Michael