email list etiquette

[Mike Arman]

Personally, I happen to prefer top posting - if that is even the correct terminology.

I'd like to know what the writer is responding to, so tell me the original statement and then I will 
read the response - oldest comment on top, newest (reply) on bottom.

This assumes the original post has been carefully trimmed, no re:re:re:re:, no multi-paragraph sig 
lines, no "confidential, if this e-mail isn't addressed to you burn before reading" (I know that 
some posters are e-mailing from work and the company e-mail client does this automatically). (And 
does your boss know you're e-mailing personal stuff on company time? - shame shame! ;-)


Top posting, bottom posting, sideways posting, I really don't get terribly upset about it because it 
beats the heck out of NO posting at all.

The message is the message - the medium happens to be e-mail, in a few years it might be something 
else, maybe telepathy or who knows.

It is the message that is important, no so much the fastidious packaging - if someone handed you the 
instructions on how to make a billion dollars in one week with no effort at all, would you complain 
that it was written in crayon on toilet paper? (Only if it didn't work!)

That said, what I try to do on e-mails is (and YMMV):

1) Try to write complete, coherent declarative sentences with reasonably proper punctuation. If no 
one understands what I am saying, I'm not communicating.

2) Try to stick more or less to one subject per e-mail. Multi-subject e-mails are hard to follow, 
confusing, and invariably generate threads you weren't looking for.

3) Try to be polite - e-mail has no sense of humor, something SAID in jest (and understood to be so) 
gets a laugh, something WRITTEN in jest (and NOT understood to be so) starts a flame war. These are 
fun to watch, no so much fun to be involved in. This is where emoticons (which I don't like much) do 
help - a little - sometimes.

4) When quoting, trim off the un-needed "stuff" - no "Message# 231k4nrftABX23549 from Crud.Com at 
East Jabib, your FINEST internet provider", as that old-time TV detective used to say "Just the 
facts, Ma'am, just the facts."

5) I usually put the quote first and then my answer, my theory being people want to know what I'm 
responding to - I'm "linear", and that is what I find easiest to read - again, that's just me and 
again YMMV.


Best Regards,

Mike Arman
90V8Q (there's the Audi content!)