[Python-ideas] Posting style

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Devin Jeanpierre writes:

 > I don't really understand the objection. My mail client hides unbroken
 > quotes at the bottom of an email, so that I don't see anything except
 > what you quoted (if I read my own email), plus my signature. I take it
 > yours doesn't do this?

Mine does not, and I like it that way, because almost all the mail I
receive is either very short threads where it doesn't matter, or
related to fora where the vast majority of participants follow the
standard netiquette conventions of interlinear response and fairly
aggressive trimming.  It is often the case that the trailing text is
useful for establishing context (because if it wasn't the poster would
have trimmed it).

I believe that the top-posting style works well in business because
threads are either short, or almost everybody is almost always on the
same page anyway, and occasionally refers to something buried deeper
in the thread.  Also, in most cases any conflicts will be settled more
or less arbitrarily by the boss's intuition, so extended analysis with
precise rebuttals is rare.

It sucks in technical discussion, because people have interesting
things to say (aka, conflicting analyses that go beyond Snappy Answers
to Stupid Questions one-liners).