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

[Michael Parson]

On Fri, 13 Apr 2018, Liam Proven wrote:
> On 13 April 2018 at 13:05, Mark Benson <md.benson at gmail.com> wrote:

<snip>

>> 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!
>
> Same as the desktop client, then. :-)
>
>> I found K9
>> clunky and poorly laid out UI-wise.
>
> Agreed.

I've been using K9 pretty much since I got my first Android phone.  It's
not the best client out there, but it's what i know.

I heavily filter my mail at the point of delivery and have a seperate
account that I forward just stuff that lands in my inbox.  I don't try
and deal with list mail, spam, etc, it's just an inbox reader.  That
does mean that I wind up having to delete a message twice, but I've been
doing it that way since I first started checking my mail with a phone
back in the Handspring/Palm Treo days.

>> 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.
>
> Yep. There was a time when I recommended it as the business email
> client of choice. By Outlook 98, I regretted this. After 2000 or so, I
> was growing to hate it.
>
> Many say it's OK with Exchange, but it's really not -- and Exchange
> has many horrific problems of its own.
>
> I hate the whole damned stack and all the layers individually.

After 8 years at IBM and Lotus Notes, I actually missed the simplicity
of Outlook.  But I've only ever used it for work mail.

>> 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.
>
> I wish I could agree but it still gets to me. :-(

I've given up even caring.  For mail that winds up in my inbox, I follow
whatever method I know that person expects, which means a lot of the
time, replies are top-posted.  Replying in-line or below the message
confuses too many people any more.  Most of the lists I'm on are old
farts like us that still recognize and practice the Right Way.

>> 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.
>
> I've met that too.
>
>> 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.
>
> I'd jolly well hope so, too! ;-)

-- 
Michael Parson
Pflugerville, TX
KF5LGQ