[rescue] Top vs. Bottom posting (was: revived: TiBook G4 867...)

[Mark Benson]

On Fri, 13 Apr 2018, 11:31 Liam Proven, <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 13 April 2018 at 11:47, Mark Benson <md.benson at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Most Phone apps make proper posting quite a lot of effort to do these
> days,
> > sadly.
> >
> > But, again, I just did it in GMail on an Android phone, they've just
> driven
> > me to lazin3ss and bad habits.
>
> OK, that's true, but my personal solution to this genuine issue is...
> not to post to mailing lists from my phone.


I almost exclusively post from my phone, because I usually read the list
during breaks at work where I don't log into my personal mail on their PCs.
I actually hate using email on desktops because the clients these days are
ropey as hell (yes, hello Thunderbird, here's lookin at you)

Since it is, IMHO, rude
> and disruptive, makes threads very hard to follow, breaks up
> discussions, etc., and it's hard to quote properly from phones -- I
> blame Microsoft, for the ignorant programmers who implemented Outlook,
> and cowards like Google not having the guts to resist the creeping
> trend -- the easy answer is, don't. I just wait 'til I'm on a proper
> computer.
>

I'm using the default GMail phone app from Google, it works just fine as
long as you know how. Just tap the '. . .' in the message body! I found K9
clunky and poorly laid out UI-wise.

Outlook was certainly what used to cause headaches back in the desktop era
for sure. I remember being an LEM list admin and it was a problem back then
too, especially with people posting from MS software.

Frankly it's largely contextual for my 2 cents. If it's a long thread, lots
of points that need replying to such as you'd find in a mailing list, yes,
bottom posting is prettymuch required. As you say it's easier to follow. I
try to, even on my phone. I slip sometimes because of aforementioned lazy
habits. I think going as far as calling it rude and disruptive is a tad
strong, it's inconvenient for sure though, but in this modern age I've come
to accept it with a slight roll of the eyes and a sigh (especially when I
do it myself!!) :). Life's too short to push up my blood pressure over it.

If it's a one shot reply to something, usually between me and 1 other, I
tend not to bother. It's actually easier to quickly read replies like that
if it's the first thing in the mail, a valid point my boss made when I
asked him about it some years ago (he's a prettymuch died-in-the-wool top
poster). We've had cases where, when replying at the bottom of stuff,
customers have missed information. So, horses for courses as it were.

You may also notice I still sign my emails with a standard singature
delimiter '-- <cr><cr>' which makes them easier to trim off, and a
surprising number of clients still support that.

-- 

Mark